Overview

The SEAT Mii was a great candidate for electrifying – small, cheap and perfectly suited to cities. So perhaps it’s no surprise that SEAT took the initially seemingly radical decision to ditch petrol powered Mii late in 2019, and replace them with an electric motor, creating this car, the Mii Electric.

And that’s how the Mii continued until it went off sale early in 2021 – limiting your choices of used examples. So, if you want one, you might have something of a search!

It was a logical step for SEAT since the Mii is a brilliant second car. It fulfils this role brilliantly, as it’s compact on the outside yet spacious on the inside, nippy in traffic and – perhaps most important of all – SEAT made the electric version cheap.

Expensive compared with the previous petrol-engined Miis, sure, but ‘proper’ electric cars rarely come cheaper, in terms of both list prices and monthly finance costs.

What were the rivals?

The Mii was essentially a SEAT-branded and styled version of the car that’s also sold as the Volkswagen Up and the Skoda Citigo – and these were available as electric vehicles, too, and similarly discontinued now.

The e-Up had been available for several years previously, but the Mii Electric gained a significantly updated drivetrain with more battery capacity (36.8kWh) and nearly twice the driving range (a claimed 161.5 miles) of this original version.

The difference between the Mii Electric, e-Up and Skoda Citigo-e iV came down to modest variations in appearance, image, spec and prices (the Skoda was cheapest, but came with reduced kit) – they are otherwise exactly the same. Only the Up remains available as a petrol-powered car.

Looking outside the Volkswagen Group of companies, there were no direct rivals to the Mii Electric – and although the Honda e came close when it arrived in 2020, it was also priced considerably higher and doesn’t have as much driving range.

If you’ve got Honda e money to spend, you might find yourself considering the slightly larger Renault Zoe – which now has a huge 250-mile claimed driving range – or the Nissan Leaf. But in terms of the size/price/range ratio, SEAT pitched the Mii Electric just right.

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An electric car that’s really just a car

To anyone looking to buy a used Mii Electric, it is unlikely to appeal to anyone looking for an EV that feels futuristic – there is no quirky exterior styling here, and aside from some trim details and changes to the dials shown on the instrument panel, the interior is basically the same as any other Mii.

Some saw this as a trick missed. But we believe it will helped many buyers feel more comfortable with the idea of owning and driving an electric car, and put the positive virtues of such into even clearer relief.

For while the Mii Electric starts on a conventional key, you won’t hear the engine turning over as the electric motor is almost entirely silent – even on the move. And with a single-speed transmission it’s as easy to drive as any automatic, yet the electric motor’s instant response makes it feel quick and nimble around town.

The presence of some wind noise reminds you that this is still a low-cost car at heart, but the general sense is of high quality built up to a price, rather than down to one. It’s a far more mature experience as a result, and one that feels genuinely less alien than the Zoe or Leaf from behind the wheel.

We’ve driven the Mii Electric around town, in the countryside and on fast motorway journeys – read on for the full Parkers review.

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