Our team at MINI Aberdeen were kind enough to lend us a MINI Electric for the afternoon so that we could test it out for ourselves - and we had a blast!
We took a Level 3 MINI Electric, which is the highest trim level available, around Aberdeen to see how it performed first hand. We hadn’t driven an electric car before so we were really keen to see how it drove and how it felt compared to our own petrol cars.
Our first impression was how stylish it looked. Ours was Chili Red with a white roof and mirror caps and had the cool Electric Power 17 inch alloys, and we loved how it looked!
There were a few key things that stuck out to us as we drove. The first was the leather steering wheel and how comfortable it was to use. It’s covered with Walknappa leather so it’s really soft and has some control buttons built into the steering wheel which we found really easy to use whilst we were driving, although they could be a little sensitive.
We knew that electric cars were quiet but we were still surprised at just how little noise the MINI Electric made when driving. Even when we pressed down on the accelerator there was no noise and just a really smooth acceleration.
We tried out some of the MINI Electric’s in-car systems like the sat nav and were really impressed with it too. The map itself was clear and easy to read and the directions it gave us were accurate and with enough notice to make turns or change lanes safely.
The centre screen took a little bit of getting used to as the MINI system is really unique compared to some others that we’ve used in the past. Once you know your way around it’s easy enough to use and works well with the new digital driver’s information screen that MINI has in all models.
The new display was really informative and gave us confidence as we drove as we could see all of the important information at a glance, such as how much charge we had left or the sat nav directions.
We left the MINI site with 80 miles of charge and drove around Aberdeen to several locations in varying traffic conditions for a couple of hours and dropped it back off with 65 miles, again something we were impressed with.
If you’re considering an electric car we’d really recommend speaking to our MINI teams in Aberdeen or Tayside about the MINI Electric and test driving one for yourself!
