Hot electric Mini Cooper JCW inbound

By now you've probably seen the Mini Cooper JCW prototype that raced at this year's Nurburgring 24 Hours event. That was a disguised petrol-engined model, but Mini has confirmed that it is also working on an electric counterpart that will run on a completely different chassis.

The electric version of the JCW was a topic of some interest at the recent Cooper SE electric launch in Spain, and Wheels took the opportunity to prod Mini's dynamics engineer Patrick Haussler a little on what that car could look like.

Given that the Cooper SE already puts a chunky 160kW and 330Nm through its front treads, we wondered whether the JCW could at some point be packaged with an all-wheel drive chassis. Haussler seemed cool on that prospect.

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“Mmm. Is it possible? I think it will be possible but on the other hand, I'm not sure if we need it,” he mused.

“I mean, what do you do? You have two electric engines, one in the front, one in the rear – it's even more weight. Four-wheel drive, I understand where you're going to, but I'm not sure we really need that.”

Granted, the Cooper SE runs on a low-rolling resistance Michelin e-Primacy tyre and a lot of gains can be made in fitting more focused sporting rubber to the JCW, so all-wheel drive isn't a priority right now.

“You know we will make a John Cooper Works, so some time you will be able to try that one, but for now I think we are fine without all-wheel drive but never say never. Maybe in some years they will want all-wheel drive.”

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When quizzed on the progress of the electric JCW, Haussler was happy to expand. “We are working on it right now. I'm sure if you like the car right now (the Cooper SE), the Johnny is another step. I'm also very happy about it and I'm really looking forward to it.

One thing it won't get is an artificial manual gearshift system like the Ioniq 5 N. Not that Mini is opposed to the idea in principle.

“It's a really cool idea and I like it. I think it would fit very good to Mini. In the future, but for this one it was too late. We started five or six years ago with the development (of this vehicle).”

The new JCW is rumoured to get the same size 54.2kWh battery pack as the Cooper SE, and it also shares that car's stiffened chassis, something Haussler highlighted as the key dynamic hurdle the development team had to negotiate.

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“You need a good basis for the driving dynamics, and that's the body. If you have a rigid and stable and stiff body, and not only the overall but the global torsion, friction and stiffness, but especially on the mounting points – the local stiffness."

"You can see in the engine compartment a strut bar. Every car has a strut bar and this helped a lot to stiffen it out so we can have this direct reaction of the car.”

“If the whole body is not rigid, then you get wobbly or get a phase or the rear axle not responding on time. So this is very important. We already started that in the simulator to predict how it will drive and that helped in the very early phases of development.”

Power output for the JCW, due for an early 2025 launch, is mooted to stand at 186kW. That's up 26kW on the Cooper SE, a vehicle capable of a 6.7 sprint to 100km/h. Fit a grippier tyre and a time in the fives ought to be possible for the electric sports flagship.