MINI wants to give you a GIFT if you buy a MINI Electric. Sort of.

MINI has teamed up with OVO Energy as its energy partner and is offering free electricity for the first 5,000 miles of charging at home for MINI Electric buyers.

A few months ago, Volvo announced free electricity to buyers of their Plug-in Recharge Electric cars in a cunning plan to get owners – especially business owners – to actually plug-in their hybrids and benefit from cheaper running costs and better performance.

Now it’s MINI’s turn to play the ‘Free Electric’ game, and they’ve teamed up with OVO Energy to deliver free electricity for the first 5,000 miles of running if you buy a new MINI Electric.

The pitch is that of you buy a MINI Electric and switch to OVO Energy’s EV Everywhere package you will get the first 5,000 miles of recharging electricity free of charge – and it’ll be ‘100 per cent renewable electricity’ – and you’ll get free Polar Plus membership too to give you access to Polar’s 7,000 public charging points.

David George, Director MINI UK, said:

Our MINI Electric customers have already taken a big step in lowering their carbon emissions, so we’re pleased now to recommend this exclusive offer with OVO Energy, for those drivers who want to reduce their footprint even further.

Of course, the offer isn’t entirely an altruistic one from MINI – as it’s unlikely cost them a bean – and the offer is really just an incentive from OVO Energy to get the business.

Still, although the ‘Free’ electric is less than a recent ‘refer a friend’ offer from OVO Energy which divvied up £150, the Polar Plus membership is a handy extra.