The main question people have when it comes to electric cars still revolves around range. Even though most of us don’t really drive more than 20-30 miles a day, people have grown so used to having 300 miles of range out of a tank of gas, it’s hard to give that kind of mental comfort up. Therefore, every EV out there is judged through this sole point of view and the MINI Electric is no different.
Electric cars are also a bit more susceptible to exterior factors, namely the weather. Therefore, extreme tests in extreme weather conditions might return different results. And when talking about Australia, the word ‘extreme’ can be often used. The guys from Car Advice decided to do a proper test of the MINI Electric, to see how it copes. As you would expect from Australia, the weather was rather warm and the testers were forced to use the climate control, which definitely had an impact on the results.
Now, their test was done on the highway which is far from the ideal use case for the MINI Electric. The small electric hatch was created to be used primarily around town and that’s where it will be in its element, as efficient as possible. In this case though, not only did the guys take the car out of the city, but they are also running it at a rather high speed, trying to average 100 km/h (62 mph). At highway speeds, the energy consumption goes up by a lot as the electric motor has to run at higher RPM.
The way the test was set up is quite interesting too, keeping a variety of factors in mind, including the elevation. As soon as the battery hit 50 percent charge (with 110 kilometers covered), the guys turned around and headed back to the city. In the end, the range obtained at such high speeds was not bad at all, over 200 kilometers. However, you should be aware that this is not the perfect use case for the MINI.
