Electric Mini (the BMW version)
Turbo Mini Forums

I had a two hour test drive in one yesterday, just by myself, because of Covid the dealer can't accomany you so you just sign a £1,000 excess on their insurance - but I've never crashed anything anyway so that didn't bother me..... so out I went around that part of suffolk, A14, main roads and rural roads for a couple of hours.

Really strange....

I've never driven an electric (by electric I mean electric only, not a hybrid) and the experience was not what I expected. I expected it be like an automatic which I've driven many thousands of K's in Aus, but it wasn't the same.

Even after two hours on my own I couldn't get used to the braking system.

The motor drive uses regenerative braking to re-charge the batteries so as soon as you lift of the accelerator, without even touching the brake pedal is slows quickly to re-charge the batteries.

It really feels weird.

In the whole of two hours I only used the brake pedal at traffic lights just because I hate electric handbrakes (which it what it has...)

But, overall, seriously impressed.

It can't beat the 0-30 time of my ST but it's pretty close, and once above 30MPH it can get close to my 0-60 time.

OK, it's not a Tesla, but they are megabucks, so I'm seriously thinking about buying one.

Just for a run-around but something that is seriously cheap to run.

Anyone any experience of anything fully electric (not hybrids).

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Never driven one, but done right they do have potential.

Overall still not buying they're really much cleaner, and batteries are still the next huge waste problem.
Insurance for them should also be a lot more expensive, as they will undoubtedly be far more difficult and expensive to repair after a crash, or simply always written off if the battery area gets hit at all.

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will

Re. the batteries they claim that they will soon be recycled....
How soon that happens remains to be seen but I (personally) think it will be driven by demand - demand for electric cars (or other forms of electric transport that need batteries - apart from trains that can use overhead wires - even electric bicycles have seen a surge in demand during the pandemic) - because there is only so much lithium in the world and it's getting more and more expensive to mine it. They are even talking about mining it from the ocean floor in some locations.
So once it becomes too expensive to mine they will inevitably start recycling it on a large scale.

As for clean/green I agree - most things that are hyped up as clean/green are only so to the consumer - most people are either ignorant of, or ignore, the production processes which are mostly reliant on fossil fuels and/or the disposal or recycling processes which, again, mostly use fossil fuels.
And even the electricity you use to charge all things electric is hardly clean/green - although wind/solar has increased a lot over the last decade, gas fired power stations still produce 1/3 of the UK's electricity.


Insurance suprised me. I thought the same as you so before I even went for a test drive I got a couple of quotes from the usual on-line suspects.
£174.60 fully comp from LV and, yes, I double checked the quote when they emailed it that it was for the electric model.
It probably means I should shop around for my daily when it's up for renewal as I'm currently paying £230 for the same cover (on a Focus ST).

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

I would advise looking for any caveats on fast charge limitations with regards to battery life. I have been hearing that some OEM's have a limited amount of fast charges before battery life is reduced, and the number isn't much. Not an issue really if you are just using it around the local towns etc.

They may offer a warranty like Apple had (i.e. if battery life is below 80% after so many years then they replace it), but if not I would be cautious personally. Not an issue if it's a lease and going back of course.

Environmentally, I don't believe it is much greener over its whole life cycle. As above, to the consumer it is cheaper to run and seemingly cleaner, it depends how much ethically it bothers you. There are some new 'recycling' facilities popping up, but realistically in 10 year's time will they be dismantling batteries to their individual cells for reprocessing, or shipping them overseas for recycling? The cynic in me suspects the latter.

Edited by Amp on 28th May, 2021.

Glad to see a positive review of them. I believ you can turn the regeneration braking off on them - as I can imagine on motorways it'll be a pain.

The battery package is warranted for 8 years or 100,000 miles (whichever sooner).
The definition of failure is a bit unclear but it seems to be a bit like the Apple one.
I haven't read the small print yet but I suspect that it may have the caveat of using the supplied charger(s) or compatible ones (they do list thousands of charge points that can be used but I'm not sure if any of the ones listed have these new superfast ones.
Their own ones, standard is just a cable with a normal 13Amp plug (12 hours) or Fast, a wall box, permenantly installed and uses a dedicated cable (3 hours 20 minutes) and then a basic cable that plugs into the service station type ones (type unknown).The wall boxes are quite expensive (£500 plus) but this dealership is including them in a purchase package (new or used cars) including installation for free.
But as an engineer I would never use any sort of superfast charge rate on a lithium ion battery pack. Plenty of photos on the web of laptops on fire and Boeing nearly destroyed two dreamliners (the only commercial passenger plane to use lithium ion, everything else, Boeing or Airbus uses nickel cadnium. Also quite a few pictures/videos of Teslas on fire....
But, as you guessed I'm not interested on using one for long journeys.
As for the recycling bit, I too am cynical, what manufacturers say they are going to do and what they actually do is often two different things.

Re. the regenerative braking I went to the Norwich dealership today (the test drive was at their Ipswich dealership - they only have two and both are equal distance from me) and the salesman today said the ipswich demonstration model was slightly earlier one where you can only switch it between high and low (and I couldn't remember which switch it was so I never got to try low) but the latest facelift model, which I will be getting, has slightly revised software so you can turn it of completely.
And from that last statement you can infer I bought one earlier today (well ordered it, 8-12 week delivery although he said quite a few have been ready in 6 weeks recently).
So I'm confident enough. Outright purchase, not lease or PCP, so I'm relying on the batteries lasting 8 years plus.

EDIT - typo

Edited by Rod S on 28th May, 2021.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Well I picked it up 6 days ago so haven't done many miles yet.

The latest facelift version is much better than the demonstrater I drove.

I chose all black with 5 spoke silver alloys so it's a good match to my real mini (and my Cossie).

The regenerative braking is the thing that still bugs me..... it's either on (like doing an emergency stop) or you can turn it off (like no engine braking at all),

With carefull use of the accelerator pedal you can lift off enough to only partialy engage regenerative, so as to mimic engine breaking on an ICE, but it still illuminates the brake lights so invites a bit of road rage from behind.

Handling, I've not pushed it anywhere its limit yet, acceleration, it's only 1 second slower to 60 compared to my Focus ST on paper but in practice, if I put it in sports mode it feels the same, maybe because there are no gears to change.

Many friends have asked me "why ?" (they are not cheap) and my best answer is why wait....... If BoJo the clown along with his comedy troupe of scientific advisors get their way, sales of new ICE cars will be banned in 2030,
That's only 8 years away...


EDIT - typo

Edited by Rod S on 28th Jul, 2021.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

I've been driving an i3 since march 2014. Absolutely love the car. There is no way at all I'm going back to an fuelled car as a daily driver, ever.

This vehicle is the spiritual decessor of the Mini. THe most nimble thing currently available on 4 wheels.

Currently driving a Polestar 2.

I've been driving an i3 since march 2014. Absolutely love the car. There is no way at all I'm going back to an fuelled car as a daily driver, ever.

This vehicle is the spiritual decessor of the Mini. THe most nimble thing currently available on 4 wheels.

Currently driving a Polestar 2.

Had it six months now and loving it. I had read lots about the motor/drive train being borrowed from the I3 (which obviously makes sense for BMW).

Quickly got the hang of the regenerative braking to the extent it's now one pedal driving, the only time I use the brake pedal now is holding stationary at a junction or in an "emergency" (someone coming round a blind bend on the wrong side of the road is common in Suffolk).

Cruise control, yes, just have to get the accelerator position right before pressing cancel or regenerative kicks in but, again, you soon learn.

You are all going to have to get used to this for your daily drivers in 8 years time....

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???