Ed's Driveway: MINI Cooper Electric

CHICAGO (CBS) -- We recently celebrated the 50th Earth Day, and CBS 2's ED Curran took a test drive in a little car without a tailpipe. Take a MINI Cooper and add electric, and you get the electric MINI Cooper -- all the fun of a mini without the gas. 

There is something you always used to hear with electric cars called range anxiety. It's the anxiety you have that you're going to run out of electricity while you're driving. The MINI Cooper electric version has a battery that will get you just over 100 miles. That's not very much range at all in today's world.

MINI didn't reinvent the wheel. They took a standard MINI Cooper and made it electric. It's a lot of fun. It has the same performance as the standard MINI Cooper that runs on gas. It goes 0 to 60 in about seven seconds. It's got the incredible handling, too. It brings the fun factor like all MINI Coopers do. It has all the heart of a BMW if not the soul.

The MINI Cooper electric is a great urban runabout. It starts it's just $29,000.

The MINI is designed with a small battery that cleverly fits between the front seats. If you're looking at electrics like Tesla, Leaf or BMW I3, you should test drive the electric MINI.