Remember the Swind E Classic Mini? Yeah, the £79,000 (P5.34 million) conversion that packed Issigonis’s city car with an 80kW electric motor and enough batteries for 201km of range.
Well, London Electric Cars doesn’t reckon you need that much range in your old Mini, so its new attempt at the same game starts from £25,000 (P1.69 million) and gets a 20kWh battery pack providing between 97 and 113km of real-world range. That puts it in the same ballpark as BMW’s marketing creation from back in 2018.
Okay, okay, the £25,000 is EXCLUDING taxes, shipping, and the donor Mini, but LEC is selling it as a conversion that ‘doesn’t cost the earth.’
You’ll be able to pay more for more range and faster charging, but the base spec conversion uses a ‘pre-owned’ Nissan Leaf motor and batteries. LEC reckons the average London journey is only less than 10 kilometers too, so about 100 will do you for a whole week. Unless you want to step foot outside of the M25, that is…
Still, your classic Mini will be tax, Congestion Charge, and ULEZ exempt in the UK, and if you don’t fancy that you can also have a Land Rover, a Morris Minor, or a Morris Traveller.
Thoughts, folks?
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
