Speaking of BMW’s with electric motors and hybrids, we thought it might be a good time to revisit one of BMW’s most notable hybrids – the MINI E. We’ve already tried it once before when it first debuted last year but recently we had a chance to take a short second look at the car to see what we thought a year later.
I press the start button – wait – nothing. I pull the key fob out, wait, put it back in and press the start button. I do this a few more times before I happen to press the start button and catch the gauge in front of me bounce up to life.
OK, so I’ve managed to successfully turn on the MINI E after about 1 minute of trying. It’s not that the fully electric MINI is broken or has issues, it is just that quiet when you’re turning over a car that has no cylinders to fire up and runs strictly on a massive battery pack sitting amidship the little coupe. It literally makes no sounds if the radio is off upon start up – eerily efficient.
Sitting in front of me where a cartoonish tachometer typically stares back at you is a gauge of the same size and design. However, instead of a series of markers for engine revolutions it simply shows a series of percentages, 0 up through 100% indicating the remaining battery power. Aside from the gauge, the interior of the MINI E looks just like that of it’s internal combustion relatives. After slipping the car into reverse without a single noise and then taking off, I begin to worry I may sneak up on a pedestrian without meaning to – I feel like I’m Captain Ramius and I’ve just activated the super silent crawler drive on the Red October.
This is where the drive gets interesting, though. After finding a small patch of straight asphalt I begin to get more aggressive with the throttle and the electric MINI jumps right to attention and shoots off at which point the car begins to emit a little noise for a change. As you pick up the pace, the car makes an interesting sort of gadgety noise. In retrospect, the best way to describe the noise is something between the modified Back to the Future Delorean and an electric golf cart at full speed. It isn’t a bad noise but it is very different from anything you’ve experienced before from a car. The power application actually reminds me of the 335d in that as soon as you put your foot down on the throttle you feel an instant wave of torque. The MINI E feels quick in a straight line. However, the corners are where the MINI E gets a little off-kilter.
Continued at bmwblog.com
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