People are converting classic cars to full electric in huge numbers. Is it a good idea? Paul Maric finds out by driving a classic Mini Cooper that has been converted to fully electric by Mini Australia.
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Mini content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mini
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:03
Charging: 02:21
Battery & motor: 03:01
Interior: 04:03
On the Road: 05:49
Verdict: 11:01
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#mini #electric #review
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Mini content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mini
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:03
Charging: 02:21
Battery & motor: 03:01
Interior: 04:03
On the Road: 05:49
Verdict: 11:01
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#mini #electric #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day I'm Paul. So I know what you're thinking, that's not a new car Paul, you only do new cars.
00:05 But today is slightly special because this is kind of a new version of an old car. It is a Mini Rover,
00:12 it's a 1995 Mini Rover, but it has been converted to fully electric. So today we're going to do
00:18 a review of this as best as we can and I'm going to run you through the process they take to take
00:22 this from a Mini Rover and convert it into a fully electric version. So it's going to be pretty
00:28 exciting. Now we don't have pricing on this because it is a little bit tricky. They have pricing for
00:32 the actual conversion but the cost of the whole thing really depends on the vehicle that you give
00:37 them to convert. So I'll run you through a bit more detail in that later on. And there are no
00:41 real competitors to this because this is a bit of a niche industry at the moment. So today we're
00:45 going to do a bit of a detailed review on this. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the
00:48 review you can use the time codes that are on the screen or if you're on YouTube you can scroll down
00:52 and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and
00:56 press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we drive an electrified old car.
01:01 Okay so let's talk about design. Now this basically is unmodified in the sense that when they fit all
01:09 of the electric components to this, and I'm going to show you under the bonnet and the boot in just
01:13 a second, but they don't actually modify any of the chassis itself. All of these components are
01:17 what they call 'bolt-in' which means they replace the existing engine and all the other components
01:21 that exist within the car with the electrical versions of it. It uses a 19 kilowatt hour
01:26 battery so it's only a small battery but it's only a small car and they've kept the same weight
01:30 distribution as well so it has the same handling characteristics. You've got yourself a set of
01:35 halogen headlights down the front here. Now this is normally where you would have some cooling
01:38 elements but that's all been condensed so you only have a small amount of cooling down the bottom
01:43 there. Indicators off to the side there. Round the side here have a look at these spiky little wheels.
01:48 They look like they belong on a scooter or a motorbike or something. So 12-inch alloy wheels,
01:55 165 wide tyres. They add the electric badge here on the side. This is all done by a company called
02:00 Felton. It's basically a plug-and-play kit that they put within the car and in Australia it's
02:04 actually done by a company called Jaunt and they actually convert electric, well they convert Land
02:09 Drivers to become electric so I'm really keen to take one of those for a drive as well to see what
02:13 that's like. Now you've got drum brakes down the back here but this is traditionally where you
02:17 would put fuel in but today this is actually the charging port. Now this is capable of doing
02:23 AC charging up to around 7 kilowatts but it also offers bi-directional charging up to 3.3 kilowatts
02:29 which is a really cool setup and that means it's around a three-hour charge for that 19 kilowatt
02:33 hour battery pack. Pretty reasonable when you consider that you're not going to be driving
02:37 this longer distances. It has a driving range of around 200 kilometres depending on the type of
02:41 driving that you're doing. Come around to the back with me. So the back looks nice and cute.
02:46 You might be wondering where can I store my things Paul? Well you can store just a couple of little
02:50 bits and pieces in here. It's not exactly the world's biggest storage area but you know it
02:55 does the job, it's not too bad. Now let me show you what's under the bonnet where the engine used to live.
02:59 Pop that open. Look at that pint-sized little thing. So under here you've basically got a
03:07 battery, it's a lithium-ion battery, 19 kilowatt hours. You've got a 72 kilowatt electric motor
03:13 that drives the front axle and it's all pretty straightforward when it comes to electric
03:17 components. It's all just encased in this enclosure and it means that they don't have to make any
03:22 chassis modifications. This just goes in exactly where the engine used to be and they don't have to
03:27 go modifying the vehicle and also adjusting its weight distribution. So it's a really nice and
03:31 neat setup and it really comes down to variability when you give them the car. So obviously when they
03:36 start pulling the engine and stuff out, this particular car had a couple of holes in the
03:40 floor so they had to fix that up. The cost of it all really comes down to effectively how much
03:44 restoration work they have to do to the vehicle before they can put any of these components in.
03:49 But you can see here on this plate up the front here, 83 kilograms is the weight of this, so they're
03:54 looking to replicate exactly how much weight you normally had over the front axle. Let's jump inside
03:59 the car, I'll run you through some of the components in there and how that's changed. Okay so we're inside
04:04 the cabin. We'll start off with the key. This is what it looks like. It's a key, there's no buttons
04:08 or anything like that, which is kind of cool. So you just put the key in the ignition. Now the
04:13 interesting thing here is that this all kind of looks original but what they've done is they've
04:18 changed this whole centre section here. So you've got your motor temperature on the left, you've got
04:22 your speedometer over here along with your gear position and then also the range on the right-hand
04:27 side. So when you go to fire it up this all sort of lights up and then tells you, you know, how fast
04:32 you're going in miles an hour on the outside and then kilometres an hour on the inside there.
04:36 This was actually sourced from Japan, this vehicle, so you can see some of the Japanese
04:40 stickers still on it. It was bought by MINI here in Australia and then given to Felton or
04:46 Jaunt Motors to basically strip and then install all of the electric components. So when you look
04:52 inside the cabin here the rest is pretty much exactly how it appeared when this was originally
04:57 an internal combustion vehicle. So it comes with your creature comforts like a cabin heater,
05:01 fan and all that sort of stuff down the bottom here but this is a little bit different down here.
05:04 So instead of an actual gear stick, well it is a gear stick but all you're doing is selecting
05:09 whether it's going into reverse or drive just by lifting this and shifting it down there. So
05:14 and then down the bottom here as well you've got the build number of the vehicle too. So
05:18 this is a tiny cabin. I've got to tell you I'm, you know, around six foot tall and just the driving
05:25 position in these cars is kind of comical because I can barely fit in here. So someone that is taller
05:30 than me is going to find this very cramped. You do have two back seats there as well if you feel
05:35 adventurous enough to sit in the back but outside of that they've just kept this as original as
05:40 possible. So let's go for a bit of a spin and see what this feels like as an electric version of an
05:48 old car. Okay so we've just hit the road in the electric MINI, well the old electric MINI. It is
05:59 the weirdest experience because you can hear the motor whirring away just beneath your feet there.
06:05 It's got regen braking as well. Brake pedal feel is actually not too bad as well. This driving
06:10 position is so bad. This all just stems back to what this car was like to start with and
06:15 I'm curious, did you own an original MINI Cooper or MINI Rover? Let me know what it is actually
06:22 like to drive as an internal combustion car because I'm quite curious. So first impressions,
06:27 let's see what this is like. I'll just give it a little poke.
06:29 Yeah look, 72 kilowatts of power. It's not exactly going to pull your face off.
06:36 It'll do 0 to 100 in over 10 seconds when it's in city mode but it does have sport mode
06:43 and sport mode is activated by pulling this switch. That is unreal.
06:54 So with sport mode active it actually starts torque steering. It has got a lot more mumbo.
06:58 So in sport mode it'll do 0 to 100 in 8 seconds which is significantly quicker and 8 seconds is
07:06 pretty fast when you consider that this is a tiny little car with a 70-something kilowatt motor
07:12 and given that they haven't adjusted the weight distribution as well, it's incredibly darty too.
07:16 So it means that you can chuck it around a bit and it feels just like a small sports car which is not
07:22 not what you'd expect from something like this. It is certainly just snappy and while I haven't
07:27 driven the original I think that this would pale in comparison when it comes to cornering and being
07:33 able to sort of accelerate because every time I go for that throttle it is ready to... That is so cool.
07:42 It is so much fun. Like you just get on the throttle and start spinning the wheels.
07:52 Oh that is unreal. It is so much fun. Outside of that it rides really nicely. It doesn't feel like
08:00 a tiny little vehicle that's been overdone with the weight of batteries and an electric motor.
08:07 It actually still feels just quite agile and not overly cumbersome. What I find really interesting
08:12 with these as well is the visibility. Like I can just see everything around the car and it seems to
08:18 me that, I don't know, back before the days we complicated cars with safety structures which is
08:23 good because you know safety and all that sort of stuff but you're able to be afforded so much more
08:28 room. If you tried to build a car like this today with all the safety requirements that you have,
08:33 there is no way you'd be able to fit two people side by side like we have at the moment and
08:37 you know I've got tiny little mirrors there to let me see down the side of the car. I can see
08:42 clearly around it. It is just a cool thing to drive and very easy to manoeuvre. Now when it
08:47 comes to I guess cooling this whole package, it's liquid cooled. You've got air that will be pushed
08:53 over all of those electrical components at the front there as well. It's not like I guess a
08:58 modern electric vehicle in the sense that it requires a huge amount of cooling because ultimately
09:03 you're driving a vehicle with a relatively small electric motor and a relatively small battery as
09:08 well that isn't drawing a huge amount of current. So it's kind of the best of both worlds because
09:12 you don't have an enormous car that you need to get lots of range out of and they've been able to
09:16 meet this sort of compromise in the middle. The other cars that Jaunt does with the big Land
09:20 Rovers, they're a different beast altogether. You've got batteries that are significantly bigger
09:24 than this. They're what four or five times bigger so you do have a lot more cooling requirements and
09:29 it's a much more modern setup. But what they've been able to do here with this little package
09:32 gives you a bit of hope for classic cars in the future because if you were to go and take this
09:36 and get it restored, it's going to cost you a fortune to get it restored. Whereas if you're
09:40 getting it restored and adding the electric motor to it, you can drive it as a daily and never have
09:44 to worry about wanting to go out on a weekend. Will it start? Will it work? All you need to do
09:48 is just charge it and away you go. You bring it back and there's very little maintenance involved
09:52 in it all which I think is probably the most exciting part about the package. Now let's talk
09:56 about costs. So I mentioned that it all really depends on what you give to the company in terms
10:01 of how much it's going to cost you at the end of the day. But they estimate it's about $60,000.
10:06 So you've got to go find yourself one of these and the cost, depending on how bad the vehicle is,
10:11 that you give them, obviously the better the vehicle the less it's going to cost. So that
10:14 is worth keeping in mind. It's not exactly the world's cheapest project but if you are wanting
10:18 to have one of these and just have something a little bit different, it's just a cool investment
10:22 because it gives you something that somebody else probably doesn't have on the road and it gives you
10:26 acceleration that is just ridiculous. So that has been a first drive of the vintage
10:38 electric Mini by Felton. It has been so much fun and I've really enjoyed this a whole lot more than
10:44 I thought I would. It is such a nimble and fun little car. I can't see myself owning one because
10:48 my size doesn't quite allow for it but I am very keen to have a drive of one of the electric Land
10:54 Rovers and we're going to go a Noy jaunt to see if we can take one down to Lang Lang to take it
10:58 for a proper drive and do a bit of off-roading in it as well. So let me know in the comment
11:01 section below if you want us to do that. I will try and organise it if enough people actually are
11:06 interested in it. And what are your thoughts on companies converting classic cars like this to
11:10 electric? Do you think it's a good thing or not? Now if you did enjoy this video, please make sure
11:14 you like it and you share it with your mates and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our
11:18 channel and press the bell icon. But until next time, take it easy.