On average, a full charge would afford 164 miles of running, which was pretty unimpressive against an official 224-and that would drop as low as 125 with sustained high-speed cruising or particularly frigid temperatures (despite the A290 getting a heat pump as standard).
It’s difficult for electric cars to be both small and long-legged, of course, with the inherent packaging constraints, but there are plenty of similarly powered and sized options on the market that go much farther on a charge. Our testers found the A290’s Mini Cooper SE rival (with an almost identical size, battery and motor), for example, would manage more than 200 miles in mixed use.
If I were buying an A290, I’d strongly consider going for the GT version, which is more efficient than this GTS so goes farther and doesn’t really have less grunt in the real world, yet is £4000 cheaper. Stamina concerns aside, though, the A290 is a thoroughly enjoyable little thing to scoot around in.
It has all the pep and urgency you could ask of a hot hatch, with the advantage over like-minded rivals that it delivers its reserves and handles with a distinct sense of character, rather than the sort of quick-but-clinical, disengaged vibe that afflicts many performance EVs.
The steering is satisfyingly weighty and amusingly, confidence-inspiringly responsive, while the impressive vertical body control helps to mask the A290’s heft in corners – but without inflicting the bone-shattering secondary ride that’s usually the trade-off for keen dynamics.
