Usually, when a car has been around for eight years, we're standing next to a predecessor in video's like this.
Not in this case. The Seat Mii is eight years old and there's now a new version of it, and a very important one at that: the Mii Electric.
The first electric car by Seat. And you could think a Seat Mii is a Volkswagen Up! with a Seat-face, and Volkswagen already...
has an e-Up!? And you're right, but the first generation e-Up! wasn't very good. It only had a 18 kWh-battery pack which got you 160 km on a single...
charge according to the NEDC-cycle. So actually when you left your street, you had to go looking for a charging post.
However, the e-Up! now is in its second generation, and it's much more of a grown up car. That's why Seat and Skoda are getting their own versions.
So actually, I'm test driving three different cars today. What they share is a 32,3 kWh-battery pack, which is a lot bigger than before.
That means that the WLTP-range, which usually is much more limited than the NEDC, indicates a range of 260 km.
And that's when it becomes interesting. All three have the same electric motor as well, which produces 80 horsepower and around 212 Nm of torque.
And that's available from the get-go, for a small car like this that's quite something. Also, they're the cheapest electric cars available,
and they haven't skipped the trim. The luggage space is just as big as the regular Mii, so it's still not a lot.
That means it's still not very big, but it's nice to see you don't have to compromise on that in such a small car.
Let's find out how it drives.
When you're behind the wheel of your electric Mii, there aren't a lot of differences either.
The dashboard is more or less the same, you still don't get a satnav because it's still done by your phone.
It's been specially developed for the electric version, so you can see how much charge you've got left, the range, where the electricity goes, et cetera.
That's all very nice. Also, the scale of the gauges is slightly different. Instead of a rev counter, there's a gauge which shows you how much power...
you're using, and instead of a fuel gauge there's a dial which shows you how much battery you've got left.
In the middle, you've still got the speedometer, although it has a strange feature. From 0-80 km/h, it has blue edge.
That perfectly shows the story behind this electric Mii, because it's meant as a city car. The speed is limited to 130 km/h, which is the real speed...
because the speedometer will go up to 137 km/h. Also, it has two sprint times. Admittedly, a time of 3,9 seconds sounds very impressive,
but it's the time for 0-50 km/h. So it's really meant for city driving, and it works very well there. It's a small, agile car with...
an electric motor that produces 212 Nm of torque. So if you see a gap on the roads, you can immediately dive into it.
It's nice and rapid. Also, you don't notice the added weight either. It's relatively heavy for a small car like this: 1.250 kg.
It has a short wheelbase, it's not very wide, but you won't notice that in the city. However, when you speed up a little on a bad road surface,
you'll start dribbling a little. The ESP will kick in pretty quickly as well, but still nothing to complain about. It's still comfortable, so all good here.
There's another advantage to staying in the city with this car: You'll maximize your range if you do, because the range is a bit of a problem.
If you start driving 100 km/h, which we did on our way to this road, you can see a quarter of your range disappear after 40 km.
That would mean you're charging up after 160 km again, which is a problem. If you stay in the city, 200 realistic kilometres is more than enough,
but it's not made for long distances. If it's empty, you can quickcharge it, but only up to 40 kW. Not very fast. Also, if you just plug it in at home,
you could theoretically do that up to 7,2 kW, but as with most loading stations in the Netherlands, it's probably half that.
And that takes way too long. Unfortunately, you can't rely on this car for longer distances, and that's too bad.
It just means driving this Mii Electric, or the e-Up! or the CitiGo will come with a lot of disadvantages. It's the cheapest way to drive electrically,
because this will set you back only €23.400, which is relatively cheap. However, for a private buyer it's pretty expensive.
Despite the fact it can mee you half way with the electric costs, you'll have to accept the fact that it has drawbacks.
For people who use this as a company car, those drawbacks aren't as big. On the other hand, a e-208 or a Corsa-e are slightly more expensive,
and they're about the same when it comes to added taxes. That does give you a car with a bigger range, more and faster charging options,
and which is bigger. It's nice that you don't compromise on space, there wasn't a lot of space to begin with.
So even though this might be the best Mii of its generation, I highly doubt it's worth its asking price.