Test-driving the Mini E

WORDS: Alma Viviers

As part of the 2010 BMW Eurostyle Tour to London, VISI features writer Alma Viviers got a taste of motoring’s electric future.

I knew from colleagues who had been on previous BMW Eurostyle Tours that my trip was likely to include a test-drive of one of its latest models, so I had visions of putting pedal to the metal on a racecourse in true Formula 1-style.

However, when I heard I would be driving the all-electric Mini, which is a left-hand drive automatic, through central London, I chickened out. Instead, I opted to navigate for Luis Ezcurra, a Spanish motoring journalist and ex-racecar driver.

‘Ghostly quiet’

Apart from a bright yellow plug, there’s not much about the exterior of the Mini E that identifies it as an electric car. Inside, however, the battery is a conspicuous backseat driver, taking up the space of the rear seats and most of the boot.

Switching on the Mini E proved an experience in itself – it’s so quiet you can’t be sure whether you’ve got the engine running or not. Even when driving, it’s ghostly quiet.

The other thing you notice immediately is the regenerative braking system. This feature cleverly captures the car’s kinetic energy to recharge the battery, but it kicks in the moment you take your foot off the accelerator – causing the car to slow down significantly as its energy gets diverted into the battery.

It does take a bit of getting used to. With all the congestion in central London, we hardly ever got above 30km/h, but when Luis suddenly changed lanes on account of my haphazard navigation, the zippy acceleration of the Mini E surprised me.

Range anxiety

With electric cars, “range anxiety” is much talked about – and the duo who took over our car got to experience it firsthand when the battery ran out in a traffic jam. According to BMW, however, that’s what these test drives are all about.

Mini has a global test fleet of more than 600 electric vehicles, and their purpose is to see how ordinary drivers would use the cars if they were available on the market.

As BMW says of its field trials: “We’ll be able to gather valuable data and work towards engineering a longer-term alternative-energy solution.”

• Mini: www.mini.co.uk/MINI_E/