WHAT SHE SAID: Electric Mini Cooper is shockingly addictive

You know how it is with us girls, we love having the latest fashion accessories no matter the cost. From our must-have iPhone 13s – I mean who has an iPhone X anymore? – to as many pairs of Jimmy Choose as possible, to this cute little Mini Cooper S E.

Planet-killing petrol and smelly diesel engines are so last year, the future is truly exciting and electric. The Mini Cooper S E I got to dart around town in is not powered by some turbocharged petrol engine like you would expect. Instead it is driven by a zippy all-electric motor.

Treat it like your phone

I need you to pay attention now, because this stuff can get a bit higher grade. Just in case, because if we are pretty it does not mean we are dumb.

Think of the Mini Cooper S E like a cell phone when it comes to charging. And a little bit like your normal petrol car when it comes to keeping tabs on your “fuel” consumption. You and this funky three-door are going to be great friends.

Instead of an engine, the Mini Cooper S E uses an electric motor that is rated at 135 kW of power and 270 Nm of torque to drive the car. And this is where the fun and zippy part starts.

The car makes all its torque immediately as you hit the accelerator. There is no waiting for a normal engine to start burning its fuel to make power. This means the hatch zoots off the line like a supercar.

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Honestly, playing with the throttle is addictive. I can’t tell you how many times I had a laugh at the boys in their testosterone-driven hot hatches trying to play catch after leaving them at the traffic lights.

Battery power

Powering this electric motor is a 32.6-kWh battery that lives under the floor of the car out of sight and out of mind. This is your car’s “fuel tank”, and just like a normal car, you need to “fill it up” when it runs down.

Being an unashamed city car, the Mini Cooper S E offers around 215 km of normal driving on a fully charged battery. For the best worry-free experience, you would apply cell phone logic.

Simply put it on charge in your garage at home when you get in at night and go to bed and wake up to a fully charged car every morning.

Out and about and need some charge? Then an app like PlugShare will point you in the direction of the nearest public fast charging point. It’s that easy.

The Mini Cooper S E retails for R658 000, and you can customise it to your heart’s desire. But how expensive is it to run the Mini Cooper S E on a daily basis? Because the more money a girl can save on transport means more money to spend on the important things in life, like hair and nails. Just like conventional fuel that costs you per litre, electricity costs you per kWh.

How much does ‘filling up’ cost?

I am not going to bore you and work out all the consumption numbers and convert them back to litres per 100 km. The easiest way to understand this is to remember I said your Mini Cooper S E has a 32.6 kWh “fuel” tank? I pay R2.75 per 1-kWh for electricity at my home. This means a full “tank of fuel” sets me back a mere R90 to travel 215 km.

I think I am in love with electric cars, and this cute Mini Cooper S E even more so. And with petrol costing over R18 per litre these days, to do the same 215 km would cost you easily around R300. You see what I mean? It’s a no brainer.

For more information on the Mini Cooper S E, click here.