MINI’s Electric Future - TEST DRIVE

via onlineautobrochure.com

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — A little while ago, yours truly wrote about the Nissan Leaf, the world’s first fully electric, non-golf cart-like car to be made widely available in the 21st century. While the unstylish little thing is also unquestionably a game-changer, the smart eco-shopper knows that even more, ahem, electrifying offers are right around the corner.

The MINI E is a slightly different animal compared to the Leaf: This electric version of the popular small car will never make it to market, but the lessons learned will be applied to the BMW Megacity, an electric vehicle (EV) that’s set to debut in 2012. Nevertheless, during a quick test drive close to BMW Canada HQ north of Toronto, the MINI E offered eye-opening performance, particularly from its regenerative braking system.

While all EVs and hybrid cars have these systems — they charge the battery pack when you lift off the gas or apply the brake — the set-up on the MINI is far more powerful than the rest. In fact, the system is so powerful, you can drive the car without ever having to touch the brake pedal; simply lift off the gas and the car automatically reduces speed until you come to a complete stop.

To top it all off, the MINI E offers the same dynamic handling of a regular MINI Cooper combined with even quicker acceleration. I initially failed to notice that the speedometer was set to mph and not km/h; before coming to this realization, the MINI and I were rocketing along at very much over the posted speed limit, working up no sweat at all. Then I hit the regenerative brakes and a parachute deployed, top fuel dragster-style, to slow us down and get back on the right side of the law. (This whole story is true except the parachute part.)

I’ve gone on record as saying that the MINI is the best-handling, most fun-to-drive and most style-conscious compact car in existence and the electrified version continues this trend. If not for the lack of trunk space or the disappearance of the back seat (both due to the large battery pack), the E would get a straight-up ‘A.’ Read full article here.