• Electric drive doesn’t compromise boot or passenger space
• Four adults will fit – but may have to abandon their luggage
• Worse still, standard safety equipment has been reduced

The SEAT Mii is a very small car, being just over 1.6m wide, less than 3.6m long and under 1.5m tall. Which makes it all the more impressive that the engineers found space for the batteries in this electric version without massively compromising the passenger space or reducing the size of the boot.

It’s not totally without sacrifice: rear seat passengers in the Mii Electric are located 5cm higher than they were in the old petrol version. But since the Mii was already very space-efficient inside – especially in terms of its generous headroom – this really isn’t likely to be too much of a pain.

As a result, four reasonably average-size adults should be able to fold themselves inside this five-door city car without too much complaint at all, and by electric vehicle standards, the front seats are mounted relatively low (most rivals cram batteries under these as well).

Large windows and bluff dimensions mean visibility is good and it’s very easy to place the Mii on the road – together with the zippy electric motor, this means you should have no trouble holding your own in competitive rush hour traffic, able to take advantage of the smallest gaps, knowing that response to your right foot will be exactly predictable and swift.

Luggage space and boot room

While the boot is too small for four sets of luggage – this isn’t really a car for taking on long holidays – its 251 litre capacity exactly matches that of the old petrol version. There’s even a new storage area that’s been scooped out behind the back bumper, which is ideal for tucking away the charging cable.

With the rear seats folded you can still cram 923 litres inside, too, and there’s an optional shelf for the boot floor that helps make this loading area reasonably flat. The rear seats fold in a 60:40 split for added practicality, despite there only being two of them.

Being a small car, storage for things around the cabin is at a bit of a premium – the front door pockets are slim, for example – and there can’t be many other vehicles left on sale that have pop-out rear windows.

Safety

When the petrol-powered Mii was launched back in 2011, it was given a five-star crash safety rating by the Euro NCAP testing body, in part thanks to its optional autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system, City Safety Assist.

For some reason, this was dropped from the Mii Electric, and when tested again by Euro NCAP in late 2019, the it was downgraded to a three-star rating. Still, all UK versions of the Mii Electric came as standard with Lane Keeping Assist and Traffic Sign Recognition – both new for this model – as well as Hill-Hold Assist and Electronic Stability Control.

Three stars is a disappointing result, but fundamentally the Mii should be as safe. Watch the crash test process in the video below: