CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

NAME YOUR TOP 10 HOT HATCHES AND WE’LL BET NONE OF THEM HAVE BATTERIES. THE ABARTH SO0E AND MINI COOPER SE AIM TO POWER INTO THAT OPPORTUNITY

- WORDS ILLYA VERPRAET

ELECTRIC CARS ARE are the new frontier, the opportunity to try something new. Or not. If we're realistic, the pool of adventurous early adopters who are open to buying a radical-looking starship has been mostly exhausted by now. Many other buyers, even if they can hold their nose at the high prices of electric cars (we'll get to that), want something more familiar.

And that's where we are today. Not only are this electric Mini and 500 two very comforting shapes that hark back to the 1950s, but they also generally seem to have been developed so that people trading up from their petrol-powered predecessors are spared from too much culture shock.

Before this test, I spent some time in the three-cylinder petrolpowered Mini Cooper C, and swapping to this brand-new electric one, I was struck by how similar it felt. It's heavier and obviously has no engine or gearshifts, but there's a very clear family resemblance in the way it goes down the road.

James Disdale, who came to help with driving, remarked much the same on getting out of the Abarth, saying how it felt like an electric extension of the petrol Abarth 595. While this strategy of 'the same, but electric' is intended to engender familiarity, it also moves the electric car into the cut-throat territory of hot hatches. All of which raises the question of whether EVs have finally reached the point where an electric hot hatch is a viable concept.

In a sense, we asked this question when the Abarth 500e was launched. It had no direct rivals at the time and the answer was a cautious 'ish', but it was clear that, as a driver's car, it leaves plenty on the table. Now that there is a very direct rival in the pebblesmooth shape of this new Mini - with more contenders on the way let's ask the question again.