The New Electric Mini: A Comprehensive Review

As I embarked on testing the new electric mini, I was eager to put its capabilities to the test and see how it would fare against its competitors. From the moment I stepped into the driver's seat, I knew that this car was something special. The interior is surprisingly spacious, with plenty of room for passengers and cargo. However, the exterior styling, while sleek and modern, might not appeal to everyone.

One of the first things I noticed when driving the electric mini was the rear pillar design. This distinctive feature can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it provides a unique aesthetic that sets the car apart from its competitors. On the other hand, it can create a blind spot for drivers who are not paying attention. I found myself constantly checking over my shoulder to avoid any potential hazards.

As I navigated through various roads and driving conditions, I encountered another issue with the electric mini - the rear pillars can be quite obstructive when trying to check your blind spots while changing direction or exiting a driveway. This is particularly problematic at junctions where visibility is crucial. The tire noise was also a notable aspect of the driving experience, as it changed significantly from smoother surfaces to rougher ones.

Now that we're approaching the Dual Carriage Way, I'm going to reduce my speed to 40 mph and floor it when I reach 70 mph. This will allow me to test the car's acceleration and see how it handles at higher speeds. As I accelerate, the noise changes become more pronounced, with a similar sound to that of BMWs, particularly the composer hand Zimmer creations. The wind noise is also noticeable, although not terrible.

I'm averaging 3.6 miles per kWh, which translates to around 177 miles on a full charge. This is impressive, considering the car's claimed range is 241 miles. However, I've been giving it a bit of a squirt every now and then while testing, so this number might be slightly lower in real-world conditions. Nonetheless, it's still an excellent result.

As we enter "go-kart mode," the throttle response becomes more pronounced, and the steering weightier. The sounds become more pronounced, with even a whine-like noise when lifting off the accelerator. However, over uneven surfaces, the car can feel quite fidgety, skipping about as it struggles to find grip.

The electric mini's weight is one of its drawbacks, as it tips the scales at almost 1.7 tons - comparable to a John Cooper Works Countryman. This makes the suspension stiffer, which provides better handling but also means that the car can struggle for traction when accelerating out of corners. The steering wheel squirms in my hands as I turn, giving the car a wild, unpredictable feel.

Despite its quirks, there's something undeniably charming about the electric mini. It has more character than many of its competitors, and its unique features make it stand out from the crowd. However, it's not without its flaws - the interior can feel cramped in certain areas, and the price might be a barrier for some buyers.

In conclusion, while there are certainly some issues with the electric mini, such as its size and weight, these are balanced by its numerous strengths, including its impressive range and driving dynamics. If you're looking for an electric car that's both fun to drive and environmentally friendly, this is definitely worth considering.

The Electric Mini Do-Not List: Should You Avoid It?

If I'm being brutally honest, there are a few reasons why the electric mini might not be the best choice for everyone. First and foremost, it's expensive - significantly so. Additionally, some of its design choices, such as the rear pillar layout, can feel somewhat obstructive.

Furthermore, the interior space is surprisingly limited, particularly in certain areas like headroom. However, this is a minor complaint compared to the overall charm and character of the car.

One notable aspect that sets the electric mini apart from its competitors is its acceleration - it goes 0-60 mph in just 6.7 seconds, making it one of the fastest electric cars on the market.

Should You Consider the Electric Mini?

If you're in the market for an electric car and are willing to overlook some of its quirks, the electric mini is definitely worth considering. Its impressive range, driving dynamics, and unique features make it a standout in its class.

With its 177-mile range, the electric mini offers excellent real-world performance - although this might be slightly lower than claimed due to my occasional "squirts" during testing.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enone of the cool things about the new mini is how you can change the design of the tail lights look change from that to that also around the front you can do the same kind of thing so the headlights will change as well from this to that to that now in this video I'm going to tell you everything you need to know about this new car I'm going to talk around the exterior that's a bit too small show you the interior yourself I'm going to take it for a drive oh that gu is not happy I'm going to tell you what's good about it that is very useful what's not good about it that's pathetic and of course I'm going to launch it to see how quick it is to 60 MPH I'm Matt Watson and you're watching carw there's something a little bit confusing about the new mini so you can get it as an electric car which is what this is or as a petrol car they look very similar but actually underneath the skin they have different platforms the petrol car is based on a revised version of the old cars platform whereas the electric one is on an all new platform it's hard to spot the differences main one is the fact that the electric car has a blanked out Grill whereas the petrol one doesn't also you can get the petrol one as a five door but you can't get the electric one as a five door now in the past I've gone off the look of the mini I like the first generation and the second generation but the previous generation just looked overdone too much like bling and bits of plastic on it it's over styled but this one just looks cleaner it's a good looking car I really like it it's got plenty of character and charm now you can get it in three different trim levels there's classic there's exclusive and then there's a top spec sport which has a slightly more aggressive front bumper design you got John Cooper Works badging you got black detailing you can also get it with two tone body work so this one has the Red Roof and the red door mirrors I really like that it's got some side skirts the electric car also has flush door handles for efficiency whereas the petrol version has oldfashioned door handles I actually like these door handles to tell you the truth B the sport we got more John Cooper Works badge in here got 18in Wheels Alo Wheels actually start 16 in that's a bit too small moving to the back here really like the rear design of this car looks very nice got Cooper S badging because this is the sporty version and we have a fake diffuser which doesn't look too bad tell you what it's not so good though the price the mini with the petrol engine starts at £23,000 but if you want an electric one with a smaller battery it's £30,000 but if you want the bigger battery gets more expensive adding the sport Tri it's even more expensive this one with all the equipment on it is £42,000 thankfully you can save an average of around ,700 off a mini electric through car W but do you know what a Tesla Model 3 starts from £38,000 and you get more equipment on that more range more space and 42,000 for a mini oh my gosh what is the welcome to I like the inside of this new Mini just as much as the outside the key feature is this big circular screen really really nice crisp colors to it slight complaint is that it's not the fastest look little bit of lag action going on there but it's relatively easy to use though as ever all the climate control functions are done through there you have your quick one for your Max and your Ria but if you want to actually change anything particular you have to do that press buttons and slide things about or press that to get the fan up and then you can control that so that's a bit of a fiddle also there's no place to really rest your arm to operate it that can be a bit hard when you're driving trying to like hit some of the icons in terms of the quality of the material this is all made out of like recycled stuff and it's hard wearing and stain resistant I like the look of it it looks quite cool and interesting you have it on the door here though it is quite rough and I've notic that if you're not wearing sleeves you end up sometimes rubbing your arm against it and chafing yourself terms of quality well things get a bit scratchy lower down but the build is pretty solid this being the sports version you get the sports steering wheel with this little strappy bit here I quite like that though I do find the rim a little bit too fat it's a shame seats are quite comfy though and you can get different depending on what trim level you go for now if you have one of the option packs I think it's the first level option pack so there's three option packs then you get a heads up display now it's not actually projected on the wind screen which is a shame reason for that is that the wind screen is too curved so you have it like projected up there good thing about that though is if you're wearing polarized glasses you can still see it whereas the ones that projected on the wind screen you don't tend to be able to see them if you're wearing polarized sunglasses this one has the panoramic glass roof as well that's part of the level two option pack in fact it's also confusing with the option packs what I'm going to do is just put pop out Banner in the top right hand corner of the screen or QR code on the screen now follow those right if you want to actually compare all the different Trims and options and bits and pieces that you get with a car depending on the level terms of storage the glove box is a decent enough size you have some storage in this little looks like a big sunglasses holder under here have this tray area here some cup holders there the door bins they're okay you can put bottles in there if you need to you have a bit more storage area there and that's where the wireless charging pad is this car you got two USB C's there and there's a 12vt socket there as well one thing I don't like about the inside of this car is the fact they they haven't fitted it with a light for the vanity mirror which is a bit weird considering how much this car actually costs driving position is multi adjustable as with every car to be fair and you can do things like lumbar support and so on and so forth on this one and I'll show you the adjustment in the steering wheel look there's quite a lot of it which is good let's do it let's go into the back it's not the easiest so pull this toggle here wait for the that to happen right here we go I'm going to move this out of the way so you can see what's going on pull this back should go back to my driving position hopefully as you can see new room super super tight headro it's pretty tight as well I can just about get away with this there's not much under thigh support even though the seat bases are deep I can't really take advantage of that because you can't stretch your legs out there are these little slots here I suppose where you put your mobile phone just try it out like that you got these little holders there for the seat belt so they don't snag when you fold the back seats down obviously being a three door you can't wind down the rear windows there's no three seats in the back it's only a two seater but really think you'd want to have three in the back of this five door version has three seats in the rear you have eyes fixed anchor points here that are really easy to get to but trying to get the babysitting is a bit of a f cuz there's not much room in this Gap here but you can fit a rear facing seat in there and still have just about enough room in the front for the front passenger it's all a bit snug though but then it is a mini now if you'd rather have an electric car in this kind of price point with some more rear space I've got an alternative you want to find out what that is click on the pop out Banner in the top right hand corner of the screen or follow the QR code on the screen now using your mobile phone now let's check out the boot on this car and we're going to start with something positive always start on a positive there's not much of a lip to lift things over so you can slide items in and out but there really isn't much space for what you want to carry now if you want to compare the boot size on this compared to some of cars pause the video now we've got comparison chart a fe 500 electrics boot is smaller but pretty much every other car in this category has a bigger boot the five door has a slightly bigger boot than this three door but it's not large let's see if we can fit someone in it so James if you give it a go be brave hold your breath let's see see if we can shut it try maneuver a bit bit see if we can get it shut come on you're just being a was come on got it you're in so um I was wondering like whether we should just go for a nice walk around here um maybe go for drive another car I don't know really oh actually it's lunch time isn't it so should we going for lunch Adam yeah let's go for lunch it's all right day actually it's not too hot fortunately for James you can fall down the rear seats and they lie flat which makes escaping easier James was actually very lucky that I didn't use him to illustrate the space in the front boot or the lack of space in the front boot because the really is no front boot just that anyway that brings on to five annoying things about this car the driver's foot well is quite tight in terms of space and if you're wearing big shoes like me you can find yourself accidentally catching the brake when you're meaning to hit the acceleration a bigger problem though is that this part of the center console intrudes into that foot well so when you're just like trying to relax with your leg on there you're always brushing against it which isn't that comfortable the rear view mirror on this new Mini is mounted lower down in a pod which also includes the sensors for the driver's AIDS but it does block your view somewhat through the center of the wind screen means that you can't see my face now can you look I have to look lean around here hello it's not ideal is it the brakes on this car car are so bluming creaky every time you stop you get that noise you only get one cup holder here for the back seats and if you look at it it's not adjustable and it's rather large which means if you have the most popular bottle size it's a bit loose you have to knock it whoops look at that oh dear towel please tow please oh oh see see probably serves me right that but there a always mopping up spillages there are two poorly thought out things about the boot so look at this that doesn't really lift up very high can we adjust this I don't know can we no what is the point it needs to lift up there really is like that's pathetic so it's also pathetic you have an adjustable boot floor but this is the amount of adjustment you have this is the lower position here then after a bit of pokery I can put it oh come on get in in the raise position it gives you an extra inch now normally I'd welcome an extra inch but in this case it's not enough however look at least you can do this come on you can fit this massive load cover underneath there when you have that floor in the raise position but to be fair they should just leave it in the raise position anyway there's no point for this extra functionality because it doesn't give you much extra anyway that brings on to five cool things about the new mini electric you can get the car with a dash cam and an interior cam so if you go into the dash cam you can actually just have a look at the recordings it'll Auto record if you have an accent and so on and so forth this was from earlier look and you can look at the different camera angles as well there's James there's James again from a different angle there's me messing around on my phone now what's actually going on there is we're just trying to lock the car and unlock it try to reset it because we wanted to record something better than that to show you as part of this clip and for the interior camera but we've been having a bit of a mare with it that look the interior camera doesn't seem to want to record anything it's just got a blank screen it was working earlier but now it's not and I have no idea why isn't Tech great using the cars app you can actually designate 10 different virtual keys to different friends and family so you just send them a link and then they'll be able to get into the car and drive it using their mobile phones they don't actually have to have the app themselves the link will actually work for for them also using the app soon you'll be able to get a summon feature for the car so if it's in a tight parking spot you'll be able to press a button on your phone and then it'll summon the car out which will make it easier to get in and out like I said it's not available yet they'll be providing an overthe a update that's why I've had to illustrate that by using a James so we don't have a summon we have a James as you're driving along the car is constantly remembering your steering input so let's say you're going down a narrow road and you're trying to maneuver around obstacles then you meet someone coming the other way oh no I need to reverse up but that's going to be an absolute ass what you can do is go into reversing assistant press that button and then it will play your steering in Reverse so now I go in reverse watch this it's going to steer me around him look no hands hopefully I'm not going to kill him and it'll take me back to where I was believe me in the kind of places you like to be driving a car like this that is very useful there's eyes to fix on the front passenger seat which is really handy if you want to keep your big baby next to you the car has a bunch of different experience modes so this one is core which is like your classic Mini layout with a big speedometer there's a go-kart mode which is a bit racer looking and then there's some other modes as well if we go to green which is a more eco mode that'll also change things like the throttle response and so on and so forth to make the com more efficient let's get off that Vivid which is quite interesting because it'll actually use these LED light projector here which projects lights onto the dash and then it will change the color of the light IT projects depending on the music that you're playing so it does it in time to the music let's move off from that to Timeless which is kind of like classic Mini look oh yeah look I like that and then there's personal where you can send like images to the infotainment system through the cars Associated up which you have on your mobile phones you can take pictures and have your favorite person image there that that's that's um cameraman I totally forgot your name Adam but you are my favorite I'm just going cogs I'm so bloody old there are two versions of the electric mini so you can get the E which has a 37 KW battery pack with a range of this and it has 184 horsepower then there's the SE which has a bigger battery pack 49 KW has with a range of this and that one has 218 horsepower then there's the petrol versions so there's a 1.5 L 3-cylinder turbo petrol with 156 horsepower or 2 L turbocharged petrol and the Cooper S that has 204 horsepower regardless of which one you go for they're all front-wheel drive and automatic there are no manual minis anymore so which version of the mini should you go for which trim level and which spec so many choices do you know what I've done i' made life easy for you I've actually configured my favorite version of the mini using the car wire configurator see what the car is the engine all battery pack I've gone for and the trim level and and all the other stuff just click on the pop out Banner appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen alternatively use the QR code on the screen now just follow the mobile phone and you'll find out exactly which mini I've chosen and the saving of it through car while now the first thing I've noticed while driving this new Mini electric is that I seem to be sat higher than I would otherwise be in previous Minis and that's because the driving position is raised by about that much because you got the batteries underneath you for me as a keen driver I'd rather have my bottom on the floor for that real go-kart like feel but I know a lot of people that have had minis they always used to just like jack up the seat anyway so I don't think many owners will care now one thing that did put a lot of people off from the mini in the past is that the suspension is a bit on the firm side and I think this one is actually probably even firmer so when you're going slowly roundtown over bumps it is fish but it's not really jolting it's not Terri able it gets worse though when you're going quicker and more on that in a moment first thing though I'm going to try and do a uturn to check the maneuverability cuz it's really important for a mini to be maneuverable and the Turning circle is 10.8 M I'm going to put up the reversing cameras the around around view cameras I've got lry bearing down on me Lorry drivers generally aren't particularly patient oh no he's waving is nice he's take it all back sorry Lorry drivers but look quite easy to get round this surround View Camera fit to this car is really really helpful that's what you want from a mini it's maneuverable enough oh that guy is not happy shouting because I was a little bit too slow cuz he's in a big rush I think if you like one pedal driving which basically allows you to drive around at low speeds without touching the brake because when you lift off so look I'm going Show You Now by lifting off the accelerator and it comes to a complete stop I like that for just driving in town let's just try the brakes out though just at low speeds they're okay steering this is just like in the lighter setting and it's not overly light visibility those pillars are quite large the view at the back window isn't bad though but there are some huge blind spots by those rear pillars so when you're like looking over your shoulder like to pull out at certain Junctions or maybe out of a driveway they do just get in the way of your view when you're trying to see oncoming cars you might notice then the tire noise as I change surface from like a smoother surface to this darker more rough surface that there's also quite a bit of wind noise it is not the quietest car in this category right so we're approaching the Dual Carriage Way now what I've done is redu the speed to 40 m an hour we're going to see the pickup from 40 to 70 when I floor it so here we go 3 2 1 go and that's 70 pretty quick and you got that noise like w the noise is very similar to you getting BMWs and BMW use the composer hand Zimmer to create the noise for its cars but they haven't done it for many even though it sounds the same as I'm going quicker can you notice the wind noise a bit it's not terrible though I'm actually averaging 3.6 m per kwatt hour so when you multiply that out by the battery capacity that means a real world range in this car of about 177 miles on a full charge whereas this one in this trim level should be doing 241 so I'm getting about 77% of the claimed range now to be fair because I've been testing this car I have been giving it a squirt every now and again so that won't have helped the efficiency I reckon you will be able to get it to around about 80% of the claimed range which is way better than the old Mini electric but it's not that far is it really if you need to go a long distance Wango Denai has put the car into go-kart mode oh yeah so come on goodbye Adam's beautiful face I'll miss you put it into go-kart mode what that does is sharpen the throttle response and make the steering weightier that's it though so the sounds got more pronouncing we even get a little bit of almost like turbo wastegate whistle when I lift off the accelerator he that sounds like a Starship this does now going quicker this is where I'm feeling the problem with this car because over like uneven surfaces it really does just skip about quite a bit it's a bit fidgety now part of the problem for this is the fact that because this car has bat on it's quite heavy so they have to fit it with quite firm suspension to coope with that you see this thing weighs almost 1.7 tons which is the same weight as a John Cooper work Countryman which is a much bigger car to be fair it does still go around corners pretty well look just grips stays nice and flat the steering's pretty sharp being front-wheel drive you do feel it struggle for grip as you try and accelerate out of a Bend you do also get a bit of torque Ste so when you put your foot down you can feel the front wheels like hunting for grip and the steering wheel squirms in hand a bit makes it feel a bit like kind of like a wild dog on the lead like just scurrying about so that does create an element of fun if I'm brutally honest while the electric motor is Punchy you just don't get the same thrills as you do ripping through the gears in the petrol version of the car you just don't this car does have a certain charm to it I think it's got more character than many of its competitors and yes it's got its flaw and all that kind of stuff but there's just something likable about it and that's how it should be with a mini mini says this car do not to 60 in 6.7 seconds let's find out for ourselves now with the specialist timing gear left on the brake brake boost let's go struggling for grip skipping about a bit it matters not 6.23 wow that's pretty quick so then what's my final verdict on this new electric mini should you avoid it should you consider it should you short list it or should you just go right ahead and buy it or do you know what I'd short list this mini you see it might be expensive and it does have a few floors like it's a bit small inside and it is rather expensive but it has bags of carrots and it makes you want it and that matters especially in today's market of boring homogenized electric cars anyway I hope you enjoyed the video if you did give it a like if you want to watch some other videos click on the video windows and if you want to sell your car the easy way to buy your next car should do it through car and have dealers all across the country bid on it just click on the car logo to go find out more thanks for watchingone of the cool things about the new mini is how you can change the design of the tail lights look change from that to that also around the front you can do the same kind of thing so the headlights will change as well from this to that to that now in this video I'm going to tell you everything you need to know about this new car I'm going to talk around the exterior that's a bit too small show you the interior yourself I'm going to take it for a drive oh that gu is not happy I'm going to tell you what's good about it that is very useful what's not good about it that's pathetic and of course I'm going to launch it to see how quick it is to 60 MPH I'm Matt Watson and you're watching carw there's something a little bit confusing about the new mini so you can get it as an electric car which is what this is or as a petrol car they look very similar but actually underneath the skin they have different platforms the petrol car is based on a revised version of the old cars platform whereas the electric one is on an all new platform it's hard to spot the differences main one is the fact that the electric car has a blanked out Grill whereas the petrol one doesn't also you can get the petrol one as a five door but you can't get the electric one as a five door now in the past I've gone off the look of the mini I like the first generation and the second generation but the previous generation just looked overdone too much like bling and bits of plastic on it it's over styled but this one just looks cleaner it's a good looking car I really like it it's got plenty of character and charm now you can get it in three different trim levels there's classic there's exclusive and then there's a top spec sport which has a slightly more aggressive front bumper design you got John Cooper Works badging you got black detailing you can also get it with two tone body work so this one has the Red Roof and the red door mirrors I really like that it's got some side skirts the electric car also has flush door handles for efficiency whereas the petrol version has oldfashioned door handles I actually like these door handles to tell you the truth B the sport we got more John Cooper Works badge in here got 18in Wheels Alo Wheels actually start 16 in that's a bit too small moving to the back here really like the rear design of this car looks very nice got Cooper S badging because this is the sporty version and we have a fake diffuser which doesn't look too bad tell you what it's not so good though the price the mini with the petrol engine starts at £23,000 but if you want an electric one with a smaller battery it's £30,000 but if you want the bigger battery gets more expensive adding the sport Tri it's even more expensive this one with all the equipment on it is £42,000 thankfully you can save an average of around ,700 off a mini electric through car W but do you know what a Tesla Model 3 starts from £38,000 and you get more equipment on that more range more space and 42,000 for a mini oh my gosh what is the welcome to I like the inside of this new Mini just as much as the outside the key feature is this big circular screen really really nice crisp colors to it slight complaint is that it's not the fastest look little bit of lag action going on there but it's relatively easy to use though as ever all the climate control functions are done through there you have your quick one for your Max and your Ria but if you want to actually change anything particular you have to do that press buttons and slide things about or press that to get the fan up and then you can control that so that's a bit of a fiddle also there's no place to really rest your arm to operate it that can be a bit hard when you're driving trying to like hit some of the icons in terms of the quality of the material this is all made out of like recycled stuff and it's hard wearing and stain resistant I like the look of it it looks quite cool and interesting you have it on the door here though it is quite rough and I've notic that if you're not wearing sleeves you end up sometimes rubbing your arm against it and chafing yourself terms of quality well things get a bit scratchy lower down but the build is pretty solid this being the sports version you get the sports steering wheel with this little strappy bit here I quite like that though I do find the rim a little bit too fat it's a shame seats are quite comfy though and you can get different depending on what trim level you go for now if you have one of the option packs I think it's the first level option pack so there's three option packs then you get a heads up display now it's not actually projected on the wind screen which is a shame reason for that is that the wind screen is too curved so you have it like projected up there good thing about that though is if you're wearing polarized glasses you can still see it whereas the ones that projected on the wind screen you don't tend to be able to see them if you're wearing polarized sunglasses this one has the panoramic glass roof as well that's part of the level two option pack in fact it's also confusing with the option packs what I'm going to do is just put pop out Banner in the top right hand corner of the screen or QR code on the screen now follow those right if you want to actually compare all the different Trims and options and bits and pieces that you get with a car depending on the level terms of storage the glove box is a decent enough size you have some storage in this little looks like a big sunglasses holder under here have this tray area here some cup holders there the door bins they're okay you can put bottles in there if you need to you have a bit more storage area there and that's where the wireless charging pad is this car you got two USB C's there and there's a 12vt socket there as well one thing I don't like about the inside of this car is the fact they they haven't fitted it with a light for the vanity mirror which is a bit weird considering how much this car actually costs driving position is multi adjustable as with every car to be fair and you can do things like lumbar support and so on and so forth on this one and I'll show you the adjustment in the steering wheel look there's quite a lot of it which is good let's do it let's go into the back it's not the easiest so pull this toggle here wait for the that to happen right here we go I'm going to move this out of the way so you can see what's going on pull this back should go back to my driving position hopefully as you can see new room super super tight headro it's pretty tight as well I can just about get away with this there's not much under thigh support even though the seat bases are deep I can't really take advantage of that because you can't stretch your legs out there are these little slots here I suppose where you put your mobile phone just try it out like that you got these little holders there for the seat belt so they don't snag when you fold the back seats down obviously being a three door you can't wind down the rear windows there's no three seats in the back it's only a two seater but really think you'd want to have three in the back of this five door version has three seats in the rear you have eyes fixed anchor points here that are really easy to get to but trying to get the babysitting is a bit of a f cuz there's not much room in this Gap here but you can fit a rear facing seat in there and still have just about enough room in the front for the front passenger it's all a bit snug though but then it is a mini now if you'd rather have an electric car in this kind of price point with some more rear space I've got an alternative you want to find out what that is click on the pop out Banner in the top right hand corner of the screen or follow the QR code on the screen now using your mobile phone now let's check out the boot on this car and we're going to start with something positive always start on a positive there's not much of a lip to lift things over so you can slide items in and out but there really isn't much space for what you want to carry now if you want to compare the boot size on this compared to some of cars pause the video now we've got comparison chart a fe 500 electrics boot is smaller but pretty much every other car in this category has a bigger boot the five door has a slightly bigger boot than this three door but it's not large let's see if we can fit someone in it so James if you give it a go be brave hold your breath let's see see if we can shut it try maneuver a bit bit see if we can get it shut come on you're just being a was come on got it you're in so um I was wondering like whether we should just go for a nice walk around here um maybe go for drive another car I don't know really oh actually it's lunch time isn't it so should we going for lunch Adam yeah let's go for lunch it's all right day actually it's not too hot fortunately for James you can fall down the rear seats and they lie flat which makes escaping easier James was actually very lucky that I didn't use him to illustrate the space in the front boot or the lack of space in the front boot because the really is no front boot just that anyway that brings on to five annoying things about this car the driver's foot well is quite tight in terms of space and if you're wearing big shoes like me you can find yourself accidentally catching the brake when you're meaning to hit the acceleration a bigger problem though is that this part of the center console intrudes into that foot well so when you're just like trying to relax with your leg on there you're always brushing against it which isn't that comfortable the rear view mirror on this new Mini is mounted lower down in a pod which also includes the sensors for the driver's AIDS but it does block your view somewhat through the center of the wind screen means that you can't see my face now can you look I have to look lean around here hello it's not ideal is it the brakes on this car car are so bluming creaky every time you stop you get that noise you only get one cup holder here for the back seats and if you look at it it's not adjustable and it's rather large which means if you have the most popular bottle size it's a bit loose you have to knock it whoops look at that oh dear towel please tow please oh oh see see probably serves me right that but there a always mopping up spillages there are two poorly thought out things about the boot so look at this that doesn't really lift up very high can we adjust this I don't know can we no what is the point it needs to lift up there really is like that's pathetic so it's also pathetic you have an adjustable boot floor but this is the amount of adjustment you have this is the lower position here then after a bit of pokery I can put it oh come on get in in the raise position it gives you an extra inch now normally I'd welcome an extra inch but in this case it's not enough however look at least you can do this come on you can fit this massive load cover underneath there when you have that floor in the raise position but to be fair they should just leave it in the raise position anyway there's no point for this extra functionality because it doesn't give you much extra anyway that brings on to five cool things about the new mini electric you can get the car with a dash cam and an interior cam so if you go into the dash cam you can actually just have a look at the recordings it'll Auto record if you have an accent and so on and so forth this was from earlier look and you can look at the different camera angles as well there's James there's James again from a different angle there's me messing around on my phone now what's actually going on there is we're just trying to lock the car and unlock it try to reset it because we wanted to record something better than that to show you as part of this clip and for the interior camera but we've been having a bit of a mare with it that look the interior camera doesn't seem to want to record anything it's just got a blank screen it was working earlier but now it's not and I have no idea why isn't Tech great using the cars app you can actually designate 10 different virtual keys to different friends and family so you just send them a link and then they'll be able to get into the car and drive it using their mobile phones they don't actually have to have the app themselves the link will actually work for for them also using the app soon you'll be able to get a summon feature for the car so if it's in a tight parking spot you'll be able to press a button on your phone and then it'll summon the car out which will make it easier to get in and out like I said it's not available yet they'll be providing an overthe a update that's why I've had to illustrate that by using a James so we don't have a summon we have a James as you're driving along the car is constantly remembering your steering input so let's say you're going down a narrow road and you're trying to maneuver around obstacles then you meet someone coming the other way oh no I need to reverse up but that's going to be an absolute ass what you can do is go into reversing assistant press that button and then it will play your steering in Reverse so now I go in reverse watch this it's going to steer me around him look no hands hopefully I'm not going to kill him and it'll take me back to where I was believe me in the kind of places you like to be driving a car like this that is very useful there's eyes to fix on the front passenger seat which is really handy if you want to keep your big baby next to you the car has a bunch of different experience modes so this one is core which is like your classic Mini layout with a big speedometer there's a go-kart mode which is a bit racer looking and then there's some other modes as well if we go to green which is a more eco mode that'll also change things like the throttle response and so on and so forth to make the com more efficient let's get off that Vivid which is quite interesting because it'll actually use these LED light projector here which projects lights onto the dash and then it will change the color of the light IT projects depending on the music that you're playing so it does it in time to the music let's move off from that to Timeless which is kind of like classic Mini look oh yeah look I like that and then there's personal where you can send like images to the infotainment system through the cars Associated up which you have on your mobile phones you can take pictures and have your favorite person image there that that's that's um cameraman I totally forgot your name Adam but you are my favorite I'm just going cogs I'm so bloody old there are two versions of the electric mini so you can get the E which has a 37 KW battery pack with a range of this and it has 184 horsepower then there's the SE which has a bigger battery pack 49 KW has with a range of this and that one has 218 horsepower then there's the petrol versions so there's a 1.5 L 3-cylinder turbo petrol with 156 horsepower or 2 L turbocharged petrol and the Cooper S that has 204 horsepower regardless of which one you go for they're all front-wheel drive and automatic there are no manual minis anymore so which version of the mini should you go for which trim level and which spec so many choices do you know what I've done i' made life easy for you I've actually configured my favorite version of the mini using the car wire configurator see what the car is the engine all battery pack I've gone for and the trim level and and all the other stuff just click on the pop out Banner appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen alternatively use the QR code on the screen now just follow the mobile phone and you'll find out exactly which mini I've chosen and the saving of it through car while now the first thing I've noticed while driving this new Mini electric is that I seem to be sat higher than I would otherwise be in previous Minis and that's because the driving position is raised by about that much because you got the batteries underneath you for me as a keen driver I'd rather have my bottom on the floor for that real go-kart like feel but I know a lot of people that have had minis they always used to just like jack up the seat anyway so I don't think many owners will care now one thing that did put a lot of people off from the mini in the past is that the suspension is a bit on the firm side and I think this one is actually probably even firmer so when you're going slowly roundtown over bumps it is fish but it's not really jolting it's not Terri able it gets worse though when you're going quicker and more on that in a moment first thing though I'm going to try and do a uturn to check the maneuverability cuz it's really important for a mini to be maneuverable and the Turning circle is 10.8 M I'm going to put up the reversing cameras the around around view cameras I've got lry bearing down on me Lorry drivers generally aren't particularly patient oh no he's waving is nice he's take it all back sorry Lorry drivers but look quite easy to get round this surround View Camera fit to this car is really really helpful that's what you want from a mini it's maneuverable enough oh that guy is not happy shouting because I was a little bit too slow cuz he's in a big rush I think if you like one pedal driving which basically allows you to drive around at low speeds without touching the brake because when you lift off so look I'm going Show You Now by lifting off the accelerator and it comes to a complete stop I like that for just driving in town let's just try the brakes out though just at low speeds they're okay steering this is just like in the lighter setting and it's not overly light visibility those pillars are quite large the view at the back window isn't bad though but there are some huge blind spots by those rear pillars so when you're like looking over your shoulder like to pull out at certain Junctions or maybe out of a driveway they do just get in the way of your view when you're trying to see oncoming cars you might notice then the tire noise as I change surface from like a smoother surface to this darker more rough surface that there's also quite a bit of wind noise it is not the quietest car in this category right so we're approaching the Dual Carriage Way now what I've done is redu the speed to 40 m an hour we're going to see the pickup from 40 to 70 when I floor it so here we go 3 2 1 go and that's 70 pretty quick and you got that noise like w the noise is very similar to you getting BMWs and BMW use the composer hand Zimmer to create the noise for its cars but they haven't done it for many even though it sounds the same as I'm going quicker can you notice the wind noise a bit it's not terrible though I'm actually averaging 3.6 m per kwatt hour so when you multiply that out by the battery capacity that means a real world range in this car of about 177 miles on a full charge whereas this one in this trim level should be doing 241 so I'm getting about 77% of the claimed range now to be fair because I've been testing this car I have been giving it a squirt every now and again so that won't have helped the efficiency I reckon you will be able to get it to around about 80% of the claimed range which is way better than the old Mini electric but it's not that far is it really if you need to go a long distance Wango Denai has put the car into go-kart mode oh yeah so come on goodbye Adam's beautiful face I'll miss you put it into go-kart mode what that does is sharpen the throttle response and make the steering weightier that's it though so the sounds got more pronouncing we even get a little bit of almost like turbo wastegate whistle when I lift off the accelerator he that sounds like a Starship this does now going quicker this is where I'm feeling the problem with this car because over like uneven surfaces it really does just skip about quite a bit it's a bit fidgety now part of the problem for this is the fact that because this car has bat on it's quite heavy so they have to fit it with quite firm suspension to coope with that you see this thing weighs almost 1.7 tons which is the same weight as a John Cooper work Countryman which is a much bigger car to be fair it does still go around corners pretty well look just grips stays nice and flat the steering's pretty sharp being front-wheel drive you do feel it struggle for grip as you try and accelerate out of a Bend you do also get a bit of torque Ste so when you put your foot down you can feel the front wheels like hunting for grip and the steering wheel squirms in hand a bit makes it feel a bit like kind of like a wild dog on the lead like just scurrying about so that does create an element of fun if I'm brutally honest while the electric motor is Punchy you just don't get the same thrills as you do ripping through the gears in the petrol version of the car you just don't this car does have a certain charm to it I think it's got more character than many of its competitors and yes it's got its flaw and all that kind of stuff but there's just something likable about it and that's how it should be with a mini mini says this car do not to 60 in 6.7 seconds let's find out for ourselves now with the specialist timing gear left on the brake brake boost let's go struggling for grip skipping about a bit it matters not 6.23 wow that's pretty quick so then what's my final verdict on this new electric mini should you avoid it should you consider it should you short list it or should you just go right ahead and buy it or do you know what I'd short list this mini you see it might be expensive and it does have a few floors like it's a bit small inside and it is rather expensive but it has bags of carrots and it makes you want it and that matters especially in today's market of boring homogenized electric cars anyway I hope you enjoyed the video if you did give it a like if you want to watch some other videos click on the video windows and if you want to sell your car the easy way to buy your next car should do it through car and have dealers all across the country bid on it just click on the car logo to go find out more thanks for watching\n"