Electric Mini review, buyers guide and comparison between Level 2 and 3 trims. It's great fun!

My name is richard simons, and this is going to be my take and review on the electric mini. The mini is a british classic isnt it its been around for many years, evolved over the decades and its right up there in the current century. With an electric version, so in fact theyve been around a couple of years – i just havent had one yet, but now ive got two here: a level two and a level three. So in this video i can give you some of my opinions on these cars. Talking to you a little bit about what you can really achieve in the real world range of these little electric cars, what they like to live with. Compare the specs and just show you a few of the brilliant little details of these cars because i think theyre pretty good, so stick around and ill show you the level two that we see here. There was a level one version, but thats now not available anymore. So they start with a level two and they start at 31 000 pounds. I believe at the time of filming this and then weve also got a slightly higher spec level three here and then i think theyve added a little bonus one on top, but its good here to get two comparisons and theyre not cheap. Are they? I mean over 30 000 pounds for a little hatchback. It doesnt have the biggest battery in the world, its got over 30 kilowatt battery, of which about 28.

9 28 a usable capacity. So most people say the real world range of these is kind of a hundred ish miles. I did a test the other day in warm weather just driving sensibly. I could get 150 miles out of one of these and on the school run the next day and driving through town, it proved to be a very efficient little car, so it really does eat the best it can out of a small battery, not much range. I can hear you say: well, yes, not the biggest battery, but theyre small cars theres only so much space there and the reality is most people buy these arent going to be trudging up and down the motorway sales reps every day. So why carry a massive battery? You want small lightweight, efficient and that goes along with the original mini ethos. Doesnt it i mean we know theyve all grown over the years theyve kind of had to, but it is still a small compact car, but does the quality and the trim and feel of it justify that price tag. They only come with this two door: hatchback body style, theres, a few incarnations of the mini now the countryman and such like. Then you can get a plug in hybrid version of those, but the full electric mini uh battery. Only no engine at all is only in this body style uh, but lets start off with this red one here level, two car its got some of the most distinctive wheels youve ever seen in the car right, so these are 17 inch wheels, and i think these Also come on this revolut model, this kind of boneless top level model uh.

They really stand out. This ones got this bright, yellow uh rim in there. So it looks like a rim protector, but that is part of this wheel, design here um. I actually quite like it thats a little bit different isnt it again classic mini style around here. This ones got black roof black wingers again with minis over the years. You can choose different things. You could get union jack flags and the roof and all sorts of different combinations. There keyless entry, thats, now standard, thats, a level two and upwards standard feature, i think on level ones. You didnt have a keyless entry and then this is your charge flap here and it does have ccs rapid charging. So youve got your normal type 2 port here, which you plug in just at home, for example, and then under here youve got the dc charging port. So the ccs is a very standard wrapping charging connector that youll get at all rapid charging stations now, so i think most buyers. These are just going to be commuting, doing the scoring and such like and theyll just charge from home each night or once a week, depending on what you do, but they can still do longer trips, and then you would use that fast charging. They dont have the highest headline charging speed its just under 50 kilowatts i could get out of it, but because its an efficient car, it is still adding quite a good number of kind of miles per hour of charging speed.

So, actually, when i did a longer trip in one of these, the 20 minutes 30 minutes stop for tea coffee. You know toilet break answer a couple of emails. It was enough to pretty much refill this car again, so small battery, not the greatest range in the world, but fairly fast charging, because its sufficient and thats the key. This is a low cost. Car doesnt cost much to run so in terms of home electricity prices. Going up 28 pence per kid, or now this was going to make the most of that electricity you pay and put in this car because it is one of the most efficient evs ive tested. So the rear weve got these classic union jack rear lights. I think they look great, i think its a nice little detail, theyre all bashers of cooper s and this level two and the level three have both got: reversing cameras and reversing sensors. The level three adds front parking sensors as well in the back. Okay, the boots pretty small, its a mini its a small car, its going to be small, but you know row shopping bags, theres. Fine, we do get steel. Is this quite nice under floor storage area here so plenty of room to put your cables and first aid kit and such like in there and then the seats do fold so theyre split here about 60 40.. You drop them down. You actually get quite a nice little square load area there or you could put a couple of larger dogs in there, no problem at all, so it is going to be small, its going to be limited, but actually its a pretty nice practical load area with a Nice opening here so this level 3 also has 17 inch wheels, but in a kind of more classic mini style, cosmos style in the gloss black.

That looks pretty funky. I do like this color. Actually, this greys lovely also got the cooper s badge, and then it has a little three here to show that this is the highest spec version. This ones also got open in panoramic glass roof very nice. They both have led headlights, but on the level three you get matrix, led headlights and its light until about half 10.. So i havent tested these myself late at night, but theyre, probably pretty good. Both of them have got automatic range, sensors and even the level one cars had that as well. Okay, so im in the level two car here and weve got these nice heavily supported, seats here and apparently theyve all had these uh sport seats as they call them. This level two car heres got the cloth center section. Uh leather bolsters still got adjustable, thigh support on both the driver and passenger side, its a manual seat adjustment, but i can easily pump it up and down for height, adjust and, in fact, if you go right down im, actually a bit low ive got plenty of Headroom here so even taller people, my colleague, eagle theres tall and large, and he fits in here comfortably and then ive got just a manual lever for backrest adjustment, which goes in big stages. But in here straight away. Youve just got that nice sense of feeling of quality. You got leather steering wheel here, thats nice. All these nice toggle switches here are nice details.

Ive got heated seats, ive got apple, carplay ive got native navigation, folding wing mirrors its just a nice place to be this armrest i like having an armrest, so you can still be comfortable with long journeys. You can fold it out the way if you prefer, like that. What i dont have in here is anywhere to wirelessly charge. My phone, so ive got something there would be nice or something there would be nice, but i dont have that. Nonetheless, a couple of big cup holders there and then youve got your kind of idrive control. Here, bmw cooler, i drive, i dont know if youre allowed to call it. I drive on a mini but its the same thing, and actually i quite like using that. Rather than hand to just use touch screen and then youve got some nice easy to use, steering wheel functions here, so its a very pleasant place again, just just has a sense of quality about it. It feels very solid um. You know theres some plastics here, but its still good quality, just nice details, a nice kind of rotary dials here and these little toggles between sport, normal and green driving modes, easy to use what im intrigued to know is. Can i get in the back? So let me adjust my seat properly into my driving position and let you know lets be fast. I think youll agree there thats a perfectly reasonable driving position for me, six foot tall will it be ill get in the back.

Lets have a look. This should be enough. Ive not tried this before. So all right, im in oh its small but im actually in. I wouldnt want to spend hours like this, but, as i said before, it could give me a lift home from the pub thats fine, but lets say i go to the passenger side and this seat can go forward. A little bit still get somebody in the front. There absolutely fine, then i im also absolutely fine in the back here. I can spend a fair bit of time here. It is only a two seater in the back its just not wide enough for three seats. You do have isofix. You can have two child seats in the back if you needed it theres a cup holder here if you needed it um, but this im: okay, im, okay for headroom, so you could easily have four medium sized people in here. Definitely two adults and two children. Three taller adults and one smaller, something like that. Youll be absolutely fine right. So this is the level three car lets play spot the difference. Well, firstly, weve got that sunroof, so its a nice bright cabin in here i can tilt that sunroof or i can slide that right back. Weve got these lovely leather seats here. Well, lovely, if you like leather theyre, just very good quality, though again weve got the thigh support here, theres isofix in the front here as well, and then you do have a bit of lumber adjustment on these ones as well, but its in the the middle kind Of dials here lovely detail here again: sort of little union jack, badges, perforated, headrests union jack on the dashboard there, slightly more kind of glossy finishes to some of the plastics like here on the steering wheel.

Again, everything just feels premium and quality again. The steering wheel is a nice real leather there, so that feels good. Some nice stitching another union jack badge. There ive got a head up display in this one and then theres also a harman kardon sound system and ive got to say this. Harman kardon sound system in this is brilliant, its epic i was blown away and genuinely. I found it better than the harman kardon in the bmw i4 m50 that cost many times more than this car. So thats great uh ive got an extra usb port here, maybe because thats a newer car, it could be slightly different again theres, no kind of easy to use, uh fine phone dock for charging or is there because if we look in the headrest armrest here, theres A kind of docking station here where you can put your phone, the trouble is my phone doesnt fit. Neither does my colleagues phone, so i dont know what phone does these days, but my phone there does not fit and cannot wirelessly charge in there. So thats a bit of a bummer uh. However, everything else about it is just lovely again easy to use, steering wheel controls, weve got apple carplay. The only thing i would say about apple carplay and i cant speak for android auto. Its probably the same is that, although this is a bigger screen in this car than the level two, its just slightly wider here, the space that apple carplay uses is fairly small, but it still works its still functional.

It means you can use your apple maps. Google maps ways whatever you want to use your preference there, but its just a nice place to be it just feels great solid, well made weve got that kind of a small opening its weird going in the car. Again, thats got a more vertical windscreen im just used to all these cars with big long sloping windscreens now, but weve got that kind of smaller letterbox opening, but although the a pillars are fairly large here, i found visibility, not a problem, big glass windows here and Then theyre pretty large wing mirrors actually for this size of car, very nice ambient lighting very nice. Again it is manual seat, adjustments for height, you dont, get electric seats or anything like that, but thats, okay, um, very comfortable steering, will adjust nicely again. I just found it really nice and easy to be in here and spend a long time do a long journey and theres absolutely no problem at all. Some electric cars have storage under here, but not in the mini. You just got a big plastic cover covering lots of other gubbins. There is a connector there for jumping in case you get a dead 12 volt battery, but otherwise nothing you need to touch under here, except for just your screen. Wash this little colored ring around here. Just a nice little feature as you turn your temperature up or down the colors around here move and even when youre, reversing and the parking sensors are detecting your clothes.

This actually comes up in amber as well so thats just again, nice little feature Music lets. Do a little acceleration test here so 30 miles an hour here. Im just coming to the national speed limit sign there, which is 60, so lets go 30. 40, 50. So its a pretty quick car, isnt it not to 60 7.3 seconds so certainly got the performance and electric cars have begin heavy. You know a heavier car, so this is heavier than the petrol and diesel versions im sure, but its still fun. It doesnt feel heavy and thats what it would lose. I think if it did have that bigger battery pack, so this is still agile. Its got nice steering in fact theres. So much grunt. You also get a little bit of torque steer, but it has that lovely characteristic of just being agile and you can put the car exactly where you want it to be in the road. So, as i bundle down a country lane here its its just brilliant fun, it really is its one of those cars that really makes you smile renault twizy, some of the performance cars, of course, but without going blisteringly fast, it can just make you smile every time. You go around the corner, you just got a lovely, sharp feel to it, its agile, around town, its great fun on the country road, but it also isnt out of its depth on the motorway. I did quite a long motorway journey and it was refined.

It was comfortable, it was smooth. Yes, you get a bit more cabin noise and bigger more luxurious cars, but it doesnt feel like a little car. You dont feel like youre, vulnerable or getting blown around on a motorway at all its a solid little thing, with a quality feel it just happens to be fairly small compared to some cars, but it doesnt feel out of his depth at all. Seeing the country road here it is just great fun, its so lovely i can just dodge those potholes there put the car exactly where i want it to be in the road yeah, very enjoyable indeed, okay, so uh lets wrap things up a little bit. Shall we? What do i think of the mini electric um, its taking me a couple years to drive one, but then two are here at once its been nice to see the differences between the two as well, but both of them feel good quality, solid well made little packages. Some lovely little details that just make it charming and give it the character, so the mini may have changed over the years, its evolved endlessly, but its still right up there today it still has character about it and i absolutely love it. Could it have more range? Well, i think the real world range of this you got to say would be up to 100 miles in winter, but driven carefully. You can get 150 miles in conditions like today.

Would i like a slightly bigger battery? I probably would a little bit id like to see kind of the two hours of solid driving, so maybe about 140 mile range, because then a half an hour breaks absolutely fine um, but theres, not many people over the years. Petrol diesel electric, the original one whove ever bought a mini who do lots of long distances. Its never been that car its about a fun little car, which is still a laugh on the commute you can dart around town. You can do the school run and it just has character, and i think thats still the case with these, and if you start adding bigger batteries, it would get even heavier and it would lose some of its appeal. So my overall verdict to the mini is yeah bloody love. It i think its really hard to fall its a nice little package. You buy it with the right expectations, its great, its, not cheap, but it feels good quality and it still has that charm and its made me smile and a car that makes you smile is a brilliant car isnt it so thats it thats my verdict, hard to Fault it, i really love it. Thank you for watching.