Electric Mini John Cooper Works on the way
The next new Mini John Cooper Works will be battery-electric, the company has confirmed. The hardcore electric variant is being developed as the next step in the BMW-owned company’s electrification strategy. But so we can have our cake and eat it too, petrol JCW models are not about to disappear quite yet.
Mini has fessed up to the “extreme performance” model with photographs of a prototype on test in Germany. The blanked off grille and lack of exhaust pipe say electric, while the bodywork, complete with rear roof spoiler, is from the latest JCW GP petrol model.
“It’s time to translate the passion for performance of the John Cooper Works brand to electromobility,” Mini chief Bernd Körber tells us.
Mini’s first full production battery car, the 184PS Mini Electric, already offers close to petrol Cooper S performance, along with signature quick steering and go-kart handing. But any JCW version would have to offer a big step up on that.
There are no specific details as yet, but to match the current petrol range-topper, the JCW GP, it would need at least 306PS, 0-62mph in 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 164mph. It would also need to get around the Nürburgring in less than eight minutes.
It would likely trade the Mini Electric’s single-motor, front-drive layout for a twin-motor, all-wheel drive set-up and more track-focused chassis. Mini says that giving its electric car the Works treatment in this way will require a new vehicle architecture, suggesting the JCW Electric is not an imminent launch.
The firm does confirm however that this new architecture will fit with electric powertrains as well as combustion engines. “John Cooper Works models with conventional combustion engines will still continue to have an important role to play,” says Bernd Körber. He adds that Mini is working to sharpen the John Cooper Works brand “more than ever before.”
So who knows, maybe even an electric Mini Cooper Works in the Monte Carlo Rally one day? What a fine way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Mini’s first Monte win in 1964…
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