SEAT Mii Electric Debuts In Oslo
SEAT, the Spanish automaker owned by Volkswagen Group, brought it first electric car — the Mii Electric — to Oslo this week as part of the company’s SEAT On Tour event. Why would a Spanish car company feature its wares in Norway? Because Norway is ground zero for the electric car revolution. Thanks to aggressive government policies favoring electric cars, they make up more than half of all new car sales in that country.
The Mii Electric is not the first EV from the Volkswagen Group built on the new MEB electric vehicle chassis. Instead, it uses the existing Mii platform with very few alterations — same body shell, same grille, and mostly the same interior.
The only clues the car is electric are the bespoke grey wheels and the words “Mii Electric” on the exterior and the dashboard. And the absence of a tailpipe, of course. If people want an electric car that blends right in with all the other cars on the road, the Mii Electric is the perfect choice.
“The market is changing, and electrification is expanding at an unprecedented rate,” Luca de Meo, president of SEAT, told the press in Oslo. “In Europe, the electric vehicle market grew by 46 percent in the first four months of the year, moving forward we expect electrified vehicles to play an important role within our range. The Mii Electric is the start of that journey, and at the same time brings to the market an affordable electric car.”
Chip in a few dollars a month to help support independent cleantech coverage that helps to accelerate the cleantech revolution!
Specs
Most of the drive components are shared with the Volkswagen e-UP! (Yes, the exclamation mark is part of the name.) The Mii Electric has a 36.8 kWh battery and a range of 161 miles (WLTP). It is meant to be a zippy little city car, and so the company quotes only a 0–50 km/h time — 3.9 seconds — and a top speed of 131 km/h (81 mph). An 80% charge takes 4 hours with the onboard 7.2 kW charger. The 61 kW electric motor has 212 newton-meters of torque — enough to easily run circles around the gasoline powered versions of the car.
On the inside, the Mii Electric will feature the company’s CONNECT app that allows customers to review driving data, locate their car, and monitor the status of doors, lights, and air conditioning remotely, according to The Express.
“The SEAT Mii electric combines every attribute customers expect from the brand: fun to drive, performance and acceleration, but sprinkles added qualities on top: silence, low cost of ownership and even greater levels of connectivity,” says Axel Andorff, executive vice president for research & development at SEAT.
The SEAT Mii Electric will be manufactured in Bratislava, Slovakia, starting in the fourth quarter of this year, with deliveries beginning early in 2020. Prices have not yet been announced but expect the Mii Electric to cost about the same as corporate cousins e-UP! and Skoda Citigo.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest CleanTechnica.TV Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
