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Mini E: ultimate electric hot hatch? Full road test // Jonny Smith CarPervert

Published 2nd March 2020. The Mini E - or Mini Cooper se to be precise - is Mini's first mass produced electric car. They did make a batch of experimental Mini One EVs in 2009, and whilst they had excellent performance the batteries took up the whole back seat area. 10 years later the latest UK-built British icon has been gifted the electric powertrain of its BMW i3 cousin and a few minor trim tweaks to provide a quicker 0-62 than its Honda e arch rival, as well the Peugeot e208, revised VW e-Up! and Renault Zoe. With a WLTP range of 145 miles, however, is it enough to be a convincing purchase against the other electric hatches in this sub £30,000 supermini class? Testing the new leccy Mini in the real world is vital, so I drove it on a suitably Mini adventure from Oxfordshire to Swindon to meet up with a classic Austin Rover Mini that can be ordered with fully electric conversion. The Swind-E is the product of Swindon Powertrain, a company who balance hyper e-bike manufacture with BTCC touring car engine building, and soon an off-shelf e-axle electric motor conversion kit to purchase. I will be driving the Swind-E in detail on another episode of CarPervert, as well as a full factory tour of Swindon Powertrain, who in their 50 year lifespan have been involved in F1, WRC and even the forthcoming Lotus Evija EV hypercar project. Thank you for watching. If you haven't already, click the bell icon to alert you when the next CarPervert video lands. Filmed by Mark Taylor-Hankins and Nick Poole. Edited by Mark Taylor-Hankins @inksharkman