If you want to save the planet, a second hand electric G-Whizz is still £4,000. So what interesting, fun, fast, nature friendly alternative can we find? Say 'Hello' to the Rover Mini…
Saving the environment is great – and you can do many, many things in which to do so. Recycling is a big one as is developing your own compost heap, we also appear to have gone mad for solar panels. These work wonders, but one area where they have got it all wrong is the electric car. Besides churlish prices on all-electric models and ridiculous lengthy charging times, they are also quite terrible. They will destroy your soul, by ensuring you never make it to your destination if it’s more than 50 miles away.
The G-Wizz is the main culprit, it’s so basic and threatening that the EU doesn’t even class it as a car; it’s a quadricycle. It might not pollute, but it’s rotten, dangerous, dull, slow, ungainly, awkward and has all the handling qualities of a pogo stick. The Mini on the other hand doesn’t use very much petrol at all, is great fun, quick, handles like a dream and looks fantastic. Both cost around £4k currently, so here’s why petrol cuts it over it’s electrical friend – it’s about more than just the environment…
Speed
The Rover Mini can accelerate to 60mph from nought in under 13 seconds. The G-Wizz will not reach 60mph, unless you were to plunge one out the back of a plane. The Mini can also crack 95mph; the G-Wizz won’t even reach half of that. It may be a 2-door, rear wheel drive ‘car’, but the G-Wizz is no speed machine.
Living with them
£30 will easily fill a Mini, and allow you hundreds of miles at 40mpg while enjoying the radio, heating/cooling the cabin with the fan, and cruising along at the speed limit. The G-Wizz is a tad different. A charging time of anywhere between 2.25 and 8 hours allows a range of up to 48 miles, or 75 for a revamped model.
Unfortunately, you can’t use the fan as that will wear the battery down. You also can’t listen to the CD player, as that will wear the battery down. Long periods of speed will wear the battery down to a ridiculous degree, as will stopping suddenly. With a paltry range, long distances are a no-no. Going from London to Edinburgh would require at least seven 8 hour stops to recharge. The Mini will allow the journey to be completed on a tank of fuel in no time.
Working on a Mini is easy, with parts available and various clubs nationwide filled with knowledge. Mending a G-Wizz isn’t quite as simple and owners clubs don’t really appear to exist outside Facebook. Probably because no one will actually own up to driving one.
The Cabin
So, what about the cabin for doing that journey in? Well, the Rover Mini offers surprisingly ample head and legroom, a decent stereo system, comfortable seats and all the charm you can lap up. The G-Wizz has no redeeming features. There is no head room, there is no legroom, no real space for a passenger, no space for luggage, questionable plastics, questionable leather inserts on the insides of the doors and a general woeful atmosphere that offers nothing except a cup holder and CD player - that you can’t use for fear of flattening the battery.
Running Late for Something…
The best part about the Mini is that you don’t have to plug it in to engage in a drive. Filling up a Mini’s petrol tank takes the grand total of around half a minute, charging the G-Wizz takes 8 hours.
Need to nip away in a hurry? The G-Wizz doesn’t think so; it will become the tyrant of your life and mock you from your driveway as it prevents you from leaving your house. You will eventually become a recluse, scared of answering your door or rays of sunlight hitting your bloodshot eyes.
The Environment
Here’s the G-Wizz’s strong point. It does help us save the environment. Apparently. Except, it doesn’t. It may cost 1.2p per mile to run and it may not pollute from its exhaust, but the electricity to power it has to come from somewhere – i.e. a power station. It also holds other drivers up, especially as the G-Wizz struggles with gradients, and causes us all to burn more petrol and diesel stuck staring at its ungainly rear end. Its batteries are also complex to make, with parts being shipped in from all over the world, at the cost of a huge carbon footprint – and this is sulphuric acid we are talking about, it’s not the friendliest of substances.
The Mini isn’t exactly Mother Nature’s best friend, but it’s no extreme polluter either.
Safety
What people fail to remember is that the G-Wizz is full of battery acid, a rather harmful substance on skin and nature should any escape – and it will, not because they are badly made but because in the event of a crash they can burst like a balloon. Not that you will have to worry about the acid should you have an accident - these things are lethal at slow speeds. Reports surrounding G-Wizz accidents account that the inhabitant is nearly always killed.
Should you have a crash in a Mini at low speed you can still walk away, but a crash in a G-Wizz will guarantee you never walk again.
Summary
For £4,000 you can pick between fuel-efficient fun guaranteed to put a smile on your face or an electric car that is destined to ruin your life and help you develop a nervous tick. Unless you have a distinct reason to make yourself unhappy, stick with the Mini – you’ll be saving more than the environment.