Hybrids are a necessary evil until a proper charging network is available in the UK, not the patchwork one that we have at the moment. For day to day normal driving a 100 mile range pure electric is fine, but it's no good if you want to go on a long run to somewhere, because you have to plan in advance what chargers are in range, and hope it works when you get there. Yes, I know zap-map tells you, but that is no use if you have already passed the previous point, and then somebody breaks the one you were aiming for, and you are down to 10% battery!
The circular display with the sat nav in the middle of the dash is reminiscent of my 1963 mini. The speedometer, turn signal, ignition and charge lights lived there and that was it, there was nothing else to look at! When you wanted to check your speed, you had to take your eye off the road (A bit before your time EVM!) Nice to see they have a heads-up display and other information right in front of the steering wheel and the least said about the gear lever back then the better. I hope to get a full electric soon. Keep these great videos coming.
The original new "MINI" from 2001 also had the same setup as the original 60s Mini, as can be seen here: i.ytimg.com/vi/8ggy7PRDwWc/maxresdefault.jpg I have one myself (2003 Cooper) and it does take some getting used to glancing at the middle of the dash to check your speed!
@@EightPawsProductionsHD For those who make an issue out of centre screens and speedometers, presumably not you, EightPaws, many vehicles have speedometers, etc, outside of the driver's primary field of view. For instance, our 2009 fossil has a centre speedometer. No problems with that. Peripheral vision works well enough. And in any case, no sensible driver stares ahead fixedly. Correct use of mirrors is part of any good driving test. And furthermore, aircraft pilots have no issues with scanning a suite of instruments around the panel(s) during each stage of flight, whilst keeping an all around lookout for other traffic. As you infer, the driver or pilot learns how to use the instruments safely.
We have the BMW 225xe on lease, basically the same car as this. After finding out that my wife always drives on the standard settings I changed it to start up in full EV instead of auto EV which does a lot of petrol in hilly Sheffield. Anyhow it is pretty good. My complaints are... The boot could be larger, I am 6ft1 and have to sit 1 notch too far forward to fit a rear facing car seat behind me. The range could be greater. We get 16-22 miles in current summer weather but put on the AC instead of opening the windows and the range drops to 10-13 miles. Winter range is 10-16 miles. Personally I think minimum of 20 miles range when using AC/in winter is needed. In EV only it is fine for cruising 70-75mph although the not for long as it runs out of range. In sports mode with both engines working it is legitimately quick.
I had a Mini PHEV for 3 years as my company car. It was simply the best car I'd ever owned to that poiint by a country mile. It was comfortable, reliable, and fast. I absolutely loved it, and I cried inside when it had to go back a few months ago. It was my company car, and it was perfect for me, but I would NEVER have bought one privately. Its way - way - too expensive new (mine was just shy of £40k list price). That was 3 years ago though, and while there are much better full EVs for the same money now, there wasnt so much then. I admit I still miss the car - I would have bought it from the lease company at the end, had it been full electric, but its measley 16 mile real world EV range was just too tiny. I would plug it in at home every day, and I got pretty good mileage, but nothing like 100 MPG. More like 60. I'm glad I had it though. For me it was a necessary stepping stone to a full EV. I have a Mini Electric now, and I'd never go back...
I can close to pulling trigger on a used one of these. For info, Mini extras are crazy expensive when car new but a lot of that is more or less free when buying used so you can get lots of extras for little extra money. The trick with the Mini Countryman Phev is to decide what you want. Late 2017 models cheapest but no 4G sim so you cannot control charging/Ac from app. That came in March ish 2018. All have 20 miles range until summer 2019 where it's closer to 40. The trim levels changed multiple times, as did pack names. And finally in UK watch out for luxury car tax. Some of these loaded up with kit cost > £40k so check high spec ones initial price carefully
Yes being able to charge at home is essential. I have just had to leave a CYC charger with my cable trapped in it. Despite the best efforts of CYC remotely they could not free the cable. Even when the car park manager switched the power of at the fuse box the charger would not release my cable. I am currently without my type 2 cable but luckily I can charge at home. This is not good and unless CYC and Polar improve it will not encourage the wider uptake of EV's by a rightly cautious general public.
I appreciate you testing also plug-in hybrids. As you say they are a necessary evil and most probably a stepping stone for people who are slowly transition8ng from ICE to full EV. I hope Hyundai will borrow you the PHEV version of the Ionic as I would love to hear your take on that one. Thank you for this channel and keep up the great work!
I just don't get SUV, I can't compare the mini but the leaf has a lot more space inside than a qashqai. We did a week away with us and 2 14 year old teenagers. There is no way we would have got everything in the boot of a qashqai because the boot floor is a lot higher than the leaf. The leaf handles better too. I drove and e-nero. It's nice but again it's just too tall.
You have not set the car up right? 1 second delay???..I test drove one for 2 days and The car we drove had instant throttle response! and i mean instant!..You did not select the proper mode..You need the electric motor on and the engine together..you must have just have been in SAVE mode? ..We were so impressed we have just ordered a PHEV..and the electric motor helps up to 77mph ? not 40 or 50 mph it all depends on which mode you selected
@@ElectricVehicleMan Electric Vehicle Man It does not! run out of Puff at 50 mph I have a bmw X1 25d pretty nippy 0 to 60 6.7 seconds We raced the Phev 4 times The mini beat the X1 every time easy!..I liked your review i am only correcting you on the Lag and running out of puff at 50 ....and i used a race logic Vbox to measure the Performance of the BMW x1 the Mini is way faster now of course it depends on what you compare it to it does run out of puff compared to a GTR :)
The performance isn't good over 50 miles per hour. Around town it's fine off the lights and for pottering about but it's too heavy to be fast when the 1.5 litre, 3 cylinder motor has all that weight to lug about. I drove one for three months and it didn't fill me with confidence when I had to accelerate hard on motorway slip roads.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2E2bUoeoUwQ.html This video shows it’s plenty quick enough up to 75, actually on par with a 45 tfsi q3 I currently own which is the fastest model of the range before the sq3. I think it comes down to expectation vs reality. At the end of the day 0-60 in 6.3 seconds is a quick car regardless of when you personally think it runs out of puff. It’s actually quicker than the pure petrol 2.0 countryman S which is a 7.3 second car..
Did you use the computer, if you tell it your destination, it will calculate the optimum journey, to utilise the battery and regeneration, as you said you then arrive to recharge with around 10%. Also did you get the supplier to reset the car. It learns driving styles so its performance may reflect the last person who drove it, in full sport acceleration should be similar to the last JCW Countryman. 22 miles is good, the updated version next year they are looking at 30miles.
I looked at the oil drinking version of the countryman but drove a BMW X1 just before this one.. well the X1 was better in every way so I went for that. Next car in 17 months, fingers crossed the Hybrid version of the X1 is out by then. I do love the look of the Mini but it lacked the extra practicality of the larger X1.
in Australia a hybrid is a must if you ever want to get out of the city, but want to do your part for the environment close to home. This is a cool car and most of the rest including the x1 look like you're about to pick the kids up from school. My sons are both well over 6 feet so the mini mini wasn't an option. You look quite short.
PHEVs should have been introduced in the early 2000's ten years after the hybrid went live in 91. With stop start tech in ICE a question would be why? Oh and don't get me started on the PHEVs slow charging at charging points....not to mention the fact that most don't even charge them up at home! pfft! :)
Odd, hybrids only went ‘mainstream’ in 2004, and even then, they were ridiculed. After driving them about 11 years we went PHEV : - we charge ours at home, as does most of the online PHEV community. - we don’t use public chargers, and if we did, the Chedemo would mean we were full in 30 mins. - 96% of our journeys and 2/3 of our mileage is full electric. 4K in 4 months and filled up petrol 4 times due to 60 - 600 mile runs. - so great for the town air quality and at 77mpg on a good run, great on the open road. That’s why we PHEV and you can keep your stop-start trash 🤣
interesting, we have a Zoe Q90 as our run-around and will soon have a rangerover p400e, would have preferred the Tesla X but the prices are just too stupidly high, we need something to tow the caravan on weekends / to run about locally week days so the 25mi battery in the RR should be a good saving on fuel over our existing diesel Evoque so PHEV works for us right now, no doubt in a few years Landrover will have a fully electric version with a 300 mi range ...just a waiting game I guess
The electric motor helps to 78 actual mph. Not the 50mph you say. Stick in sixth and put your foot down at motorway speeds and it’s very powerful. 110kw at 2000rpm in sixth.
A PHEV will only give you the very high mpg equivalents if you use it correctly, as you have discussed, ie arrive home with exhausted battery, and use it in pure EV mode in heavy stop start traffic. If you do a high mileage, then a PHEV is definitely the wrong vehicle as you end up dragging a ,circa 1 ton battery around with you. I drive a An Outlander PHEV for about 12K miles/annum, and about 9K are on pure electric, it is very economical on this mileage profile. Another small point, the BIK value to a company car driver is large, they do not care about fuel costs, and may never plug it in,Company pays the fuel, employee gets the tax saving benefit. Thanks for the video, very good.
Got a 225xe with same mechanicals - full EV mode can drive up to ~80mph. 15-20 miles from battery is perfect for the missus's 16 mile daily commute. Manages 40-45mpg when the battery runs out. 0-60 in 6.7s (same as the MINI) makes it a bit of a sleeper. £230/mth lease deal (1+17) was an absolute steal. May be replacing in due course with an MG ZS EV once we see how the rust issue is dealt with :-)
You say "eventually there will be no need for hybrids"... but unless there's some radical improvement in battery technology, anyone who wants a car for long journeys, or several medium journeys with no place to recharge, is better off with some sort of hybrid with ICE/ Range Extender. I don't see any manufacturer making a battery which can cover the 500 miles you can easily get from an ICE, because of the weight penalty of carrying around a huge battery pack all the time (not to mention the cost of it). Something like that would be using so much energy to shift the dead weight that it would be quite poor from an environmental point of view as well, because of the energy wasted (however "green" the source of it). A vehicle with a battery with reasonable range (say 80-100 miles) and an ICE/ range extender for the days when you need to make a long journey is going to beat electric cars for *many* years to come - unless as I said there's some radical change in battery tech.
I had this car late 2017 - early 2018 and the battery performance was abysmal in cold weather. Fully charged with a pre-heated cabin the range showed 12 miles and I didn't see any more than 8 miles from it through a mixture of 30 and 40mph zones. On the motorway it was predictably bad, with the fuel economy varying between 27 and 34mpg without battery assistance. Not a bad motor, just not an efficient one
I love the round center console. To bad it can't function as a general purpose rear view mirror. Windshield mounted rear-view mirrors are a real obamanation for tall people. They can hide entire Chevy Suburbans from vew right in front of you at a 4-way stop intersection. ...stupid outdated legal requirements...needs changing.
@@johnhall4917 I'm happy that works for you, but a lot of my tallness is in the torsoe due to my Teutonic heritage. My backbone isn't squishy enough to duck down very well so it's strictly a side-to-side thing for me. :-)
Aren, If it charges like an EV, drives like an EV and has ‘EV’ in its name, then it suits. However, if you can’t drive it in pure EV, then it’s a EBV in my book: Electric Boost and not a true EV.
odd my mini does 100 miles a week in pure electicmode going to and from work as an electric vehicle i think your book went out of print a few years back.
I drive 300 to 400 miles pure Electric a day. I recharge for convinence where I can for free but I can drive 300 miles at 62 mph in summer without stopping.
Why did they bother when BMW bought out the i3 with rex in 2013? Why not use that series hybrid setup? Why, because it is difficult to put a Cooper S badge on a vehicle with no roar. But what grants does this poor plug-in attract would wide?
@@ElectricVehicleMan They were selling 2 with rex option for every one without. I always assumed BMW would continue offering the rex until their customers decided to not go for the option. And I thought BMW would use the setup in conventionally styled cars. Now they have introduced a new fwd 1 Series. Perhaps BMW is giving up the EV game and will stick to ice cars. Who knows?
Plug-in Hybrids can be cool if thier EV range is significant. >>100 miles would be required IMHO ...therefore: BMW i3 with Range Extender. (need more options)
Well, there was the late Chevy Volt/Opel Ampera. I have an i3 REX, actually, and it is a little different from most PHEVs: the ICE is not directly connected to the wheels at all, it is purely a generator with a tiny little fuel tank. So it is purely an insurance policy, a get-you-home solution. Using the REX as little as possible quickly becomes your new hobby. Theoretically you could just run the battery down to 8% and keep filling up the tank every 100 km, but I've yet to meet an i3 owner who does that.
@@clasqm sounds like you are enjoying your i3-REX unit. :-) I've been driving Nissan LEAFs in Nebraska for 5 1/2 years now and really would like to range-upgrade and also be able to make it through those lonely hops between chargers. I also don't want to throw lots of money down the well of buying new cars and don't want the expense and bad service of Teslas. I have noticed that '15 i3-REX units seem to go for around $15k and have watched way too many RU-vid videos about them. (wierd narrow tires - like going back to Ford Model-T era :-) ) In my context that seems like a great value. ..need to pay off my '15 leaf that I bought for $9.6k first though. :-)
foxpup Don’t worry about the tyres. They punch well above their weight 😀 My i3 has gone through 3 years all seasons. Hugs the road like it’s scared of flying.
Michel Clasquin-Johnson I agree. My i3 is a car with a plan B. I hate using it but I really appreciate it when it’s needed. I have found free charging points in Southampton so costs per mile are going down. Why would I want to burn that smelly noxious gloop 🤪
@@tinaturner5186 I'm glad the tires are working well for you. I got about 3 years of service out of the OEM tires that cam with my LEAF and you've got more torque. I wonder if those rare proportions will translate to a much higher price. I should call my favorite tire shop and ask for a quote for a new set of tires for an i3 and see what the damage is. :-) Thanks again for the encouragement.
I'm 70% dual carriageway and 30% built up areas, but it surprisingly still returns over 70mpg on quite a few journeys. Admittedly, I sit in lane 1 of the dual carriageway with cruise set to 60mph.
Rapid charging was only on UK only Outlanders as it was free to charge at the time. Such a small battery doesn’t need a rapid charge, especially as it costs way more than the fuel you’d use. Also doubt many leave the school run, let alone go offroad!
Well I drive to Scotland to my holiday home there’s a rapid 3 miles away never gets used so I nip down every day for 20 mins with my free lifetime card never have to spend a penny on petrol for the week top up at cottage, The price of petrol is £1.51.00 and diesel £1.51.90 at local garage Kilchoan Acharacle, I fill up at Callander on way home do 230 miles to Chorley 80-90 mph air con or heater on and roof box on fill up at Tesco at home used 7 gallons that’s 36mpg the old outlander would use 10 gallons nothing left in tank, I went to buy the mini at Preston mini told me you won’t get one for at least 6 months so ordered outlander was delivered in 2 weeks, Got MG on order too I’m in the first 1000
Just drive petrol until you can get or afford an ev . Shit ev range , expensive over complicated system , bmw will love you as it will need twice the servicing
The Mini name has been a contradiction ever since the real Mini was discontinued. BMW have missed the point completely. The car is only a Pseudo-Mini. This PHEV, being a Frankencar, has therefore earned the name, *Frankenmini.*
ugly AF on the outside and a crippled PHEV system like every manufacturer is using with only 1 exception. The old Cheverolet Volt/Vauxhall Ampera. That's the only hybrid type car that actually drives like an EV owner expects a hybrid should, it even has better range. Yet its old today and we have cars like this with gears ruining the experience. Try a Volt/Ampera Andy
It's not an EV. Its f'ing up the air my kids breathe. I don't care how nice the seats are. BMW led with the i3, but they've lost the plot, which is why their head of EVs 'was recently let go.'
@@valderon3692 I'm being tentative. If you are correct, we're into the why area. Was he insufficiently dynamic, or, too dynamic for the company who were into a slower rate of change to EVs?
First video of yours I've gave the thumbs down to. I'm surprised you even felt the need to review this POS. Hybrids are shit and pointless and I think you know that. Don't be a watered down version of your former self mate. Make the videos that got us to subscribe in the first place :)
Hybrids aren’t shit to people who cannot charge at home but want an electrified vehicle. If I had no drive (you as well prob) then I couldn’t own a BEV. Also, If BMW invite me somewhere, I ain’t saying no as it will lead to other ‘more electrified’ things. You have to play the game.
