Skip to content

 
 

Green cars

Click Thumbnails to Enlarge

Statistics

On sale in the UK: 2009
Engine: Electric engine, 204bhp @ 12,500rpm, 162 lb ft from idle to 6000rpm
Transmission: Single speed, front-wheel drive
Performance: 8.5 sec 0-62mph, 95mph, na mpg, 0g/km CO2
How heavy / made of? 3699/1683/1407
How big (length/width/height in mm)? 1465 kg/steel
Need to know

CAR's rating

Rated 4 out of 54

Handling

Rated 4 out of 54

Performance

Rated 5 out of 55

Usability

Rated 3 out of 53

Feelgood factor

Rated 5 out of 55

Readers' rating

Rated 4 out of 54

Mini E (2008) electric CAR review: the battery-powered Mini

By Gavin Green

First Drives

19 November 2008 09:32

Click here to watch the Electric Mini video

The Mini has gone electric – and CAR is first behind the battery car's wheel. BMW has built a batch of 500 Mini Es that will be leased to American customers. It’s a normal Mini but with an electric engine up front and a lithium ion battery where you would usually find the back seat. BMW says it is step one in a research programme to garner more information on the real-world feasibility of plug-in electric cars. But it is also a thoroughly engineered vehicle – 95mph top speed meets 150-mile range, 0-62mph in 8.5 seconds meets 2.5 hours recharge time.

So it’s rather more sophisticated than a G-Wiz?

You could say that… It’s about as close to a G-Wiz as a Ford Focus is to a Model T. It’s more accelerative than a normal Mini Cooper or a Cooper D and feels livelier. Electric engines can produce maximum torque instantly, and the Mini E leaps forward with astonishing eagerness. The only downside is more torque steer than you’d get from a petrol- or diesel-powered Mini, as the front tyres grapple for traction.

This brisk performance shouldn’t come as too much of a shock. The electric engine produces 204bhp, comfortably more than a Cooper S’s 175bhp. Is this the future of hot hatches?

The Mini E also exceeds US safety standards, so it is also the safest small electric car yet built. Recharge time for the lithium ion battery – all 5088 cells of it – depends on the voltage and amperage of the electricity grid, but with UK-style 240-volts and a BMW-supplied wallbox to boost amperage, it would be about two-and-a-half hours.

>> Click 'Next' to read more of CAR's first drive review of the new Mini E electric car

 

Electric Mini; cars; electric mini; mini e; minis; Does it work? Run flat tyres; car; CAR Magazine; CAR Online; cars; does it work; Mini London Motor Show video; british international motor show; cars; london motorshow; mini; Mini Cooper London Motor Show Video; british international motor show; John Works; london motor show; Mini Cooper; Mini Player
12Next>>

Rate this article...

Average rating: Rated 4 out of 54 (12 votes)

Discuss this

Add your comment

Mini E (2008) electric CAR review: the battery-powered Mini

Subject

Your comment

By submitting your comment, you agree to adhere to the CAR Magazine website Terms and Conditions

Cancel

 

morepowerigor

reward badge

morepowerigor says

RE: Mini E electric CAR review: the battery-powered Mini

as BMW don't have a small double-floor A series (thank God) where they could have perhaps hidden the power pack, this is the best BMW-start as a test bed. The future of Urban transport isn't gong to be Dodge Durango with 750kg batteries slapped between the chassis rails, it's going to be Mini sized or thereabouts. Packaging even the new batteries remains a nightmare at present, so the trick with the cabrio would have been a very british 'sideways'-solution to the current Mini E's layout. Tailhappy, too! As for the day to day costs, so long as Gordon and his mates don't put black boxes into electric cars, or car-only electricity meters and pricing, they're going to find it hard to charge excise duty for the electricity being used. Did that electron flow through a light bulb or the Mini? That saving, is I daresay only gong to be available until E cars are finally viable. At exactly that point, the treasury'll need to make good its petrol losses and will stiff us all, >>>whatever<<< we are driving. It's called road pricing, and the technology exists already, sadly.

02 December 2008 22:57

 

JohnnyBimmer

reward badge

JohnnyBimmer says

RE: Mini E electric CAR review: the battery-powered Mini

Rickerby - you'll be pleased to know that contrary to the national newspapers the truth is Oil is below $50 a barrel and retails in America below $2.00 a gallon now (that's £1.00 a gallon to you). More good news is the worlds oil reserves will last 200-300yrs with my money on the 300 figure. No worries. You'll also be pleased that a 560,000 year long experiment has shown CO2 does not drive Earths temperature but it's the other way round. The UN IPCC are duplicating this real experiment with faulty computer models because they're a political body who just don't get the message from real data and want to spend money for the sake of it. By the time the UN manages to duplicate Earths climate it'll dawn on this cabal of clowns that re-inventing the wheel is the next big earner. Meanwile put your foot down when you drive. CO2 is a benign gas and a plant fertilizer. Your carbon footprint is nothing other than a a big accelerated plant growth hot spot. The truth is so 'happy happy' than the manic depressives of the green movement don't you think ;)

23 November 2008 01:54

 

lokinen

reward badgemoderatorstaff

lokinen says

RE: Mini E electric CAR review: the battery-powered Mini

I find it quite extraordinary that some of you guys think that losing the back seats out of a Mini isn't an issue.Tell that to all the school run mums that i see every morninng, especially now that the school run 4x4 is becoming so publicly unpopular.We run a small,ladies 2nd car and the missus would quite like to run something like an mx5 or Mr2 but losing the occasional two rear seats makes no practical sense, especially if a school friend is part of the journey home.Missus hopes in the future for a TT but it has to be the coupe.The mini has been considered but she isn't a fan of it but it does in its current format suit the mums perfectly.It would be ideal if it was Electric, butin its current form. ....The real world.

22 November 2008 10:21

 

rickerby

reward badge

rickerby says

RE: Mini E electric CAR review: the battery-powered Mini

Sure the technology employed here has been seen before, however the MINI E is probably the best shot yet at giving Electric cars respectability. The combination of reasonable range, quick recharge time and "electric" performance seem right on the money. The lack back seats will hardly be a drawback for this sort of car either, lets face it nobody will want to go far in the back of a normal MINI! Also, the electric cars time has probaby come with the recent oil price spike and real concerns about the long term availability of oil and the enviromental impact of burning it.

22 November 2008 00:04

 

JohnnyBimmer

reward badge

JohnnyBimmer says

RE: Mini E electric CAR review: the battery-powered Mini

Supercar - what's "weak" about my arguments? As Lokinen (good post) points out BMW have had quite long enough dragging this EV project along. My criticism BMW have destroyed the Issignosis MINI's primary object of seating four is perfectly sound. Lokinens' great idea of hiding the batteries bulk in the cabrio seems far smarter than BMW's shot-in-the-foot. My post is less opinion and in fact all questions regards the smoke-screen put up around every EV vehicle that avoids a real world comparison. I fail to see how anyone can argue I've a weak argument when, like me, you've got no real data to go on!

20 November 2008 22:01

Become a CAR contributor

Upload stories, photos or videos direct to the site, or email newsdesk@carmagazine.co.uk.

Alternatively, call 01733 468 485 (+ 44 1733 468 485)

June 2012 issue of CAR magazine
download bmw app

Become a CAR contributor

Seen a secret new car, fabulous exotic or have news we should publish? Then get in touch now.