Renault 5 vs SEAT Mii Electric

The SEAT Mii Electric is £195 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £144 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the two land within £155 of each other - effectively the same to own. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 160 miles for the Renault 5 and 134 miles for the SEAT Mii Electric - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Renault 5 goes roughly 25 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 31 minutes in the Renault 5 and 60 in the SEAT Mii Electric, so the Renault 5 loses less time at each stop. That makes the Renault 5 the stronger long-distance car.

The SEAT Mii Electric is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 163 mm narrower than the Renault 5. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 755 mm of total clearance for the SEAT Mii Electric and about 592 mm of total clearance for the Renault 5. The SEAT Mii Electric also turns in a 0.5 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Renault 5 and 84% for the SEAT Mii Electric. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.