DOZENS of pioneering motorists who tested the new electric Mini handed back their cars at BMW’s Plant Oxford with lots of stories to tell.

Forty drivers tested the cars and their feedback ranged from great cost efficiency and good snow performance to a lack of passenger space.

Matt Buttery, from Cowley, won the ‘Big Chill’ award after being stuck on the M40 for 12 hours in deep snow.

He said: “I was on my way back from my works Christmas party. The Mini E was fine, but other cars got stuck and the whole motorway was blocked.”

He was anxious because the battery has a range of 100-150 miles. He kept warm by switching on the engine occasionally and finally arrived home with just one per cent of battery charge left.

Another volunteer driver, Jenny Preece from Wheatley, received a ‘Mini Show-Off’ award, saying it was a big hit at the school where she teaches, Chandlings, in Bagley Wood, near Abingdon.

She said: “I used it every day to get to work and at weekends to go into Oxford. I’ve got two sons and there was only room for one of them because the battery takes up so much room.”

Janette Davis showed her quarterly electricity bill for charging the car – £60 – the cost of one tank of petrol in her conventional car.

Jochen Goller, director of Mini UK, told the drivers their experiences, and those of the first 40 volunteers who handed their cars back last June, would feed into the development of the new BMW i3.

Due for launch in 2013, it will be built in Leipzig and have more interior space and driving range than the Mini E.

He added: “We are very confident that findings from this trial will help us greatly in producing an exciting and extremely efficient vehicle for the urban environments of the future.”

The trial was part of Mini E UK Research Consortium, one of eight UK projects supported by Government funding.

Test drivers included staff at Oxford City Council, which had five Mini Es as pool cars.

Environmental enforcement officer Dan Barker said: "Most people absolutely loved it. Anyone who had a problem was not because it was an electric car but because the Mini has low seats which are hard to get into if you have a back problem, for example.”

BMW has no plans to build an electric Mini and the 40 test Mini Es will be used at UK consumer and corporate events as well as in partnerships with Government and industry.

The final results will be released this summer.

QUIET BUT CRAMPED

Mini E can sprint from 0-62mph in 8.5 seconds and has an electronically-limited top speed of 95mph. It can travel about 100-120 miles (up to 156 miles in ideal conditions) on a single charge. Results from first three months to Feb 2010 showed electric usage differed only marginally from a control group of conventional car drivers. Users liked Mini E’s lack of noise, the convenience of home charging, low off-peak power charges, not having to go to a petrol station, driving with zero emissions, acceleration and regenerative braking. Drawbacks include mileage range for certain journeys, limited carrying capacity and sub-optimal car performance during extremely cold weather.