New hot hatch packs “advanced electric powertrain” and has been engineered for “go-kart feeling”
Mini will showcase the EV future of its John Cooper Works programme at next week’s Goodwood Festival of Speed with the new Mini Cooper JCW E.
A camouflaged version of the electric hot hatch will run up Goodwood’s famed hillclimb. The JCW E is said to feature an “advanced electric powertrain”, suggesting it will pack more power than the 215bhp Mini Cooper SE.
Further technical details are expected to be revealed at the event, which comes after a prototype petrol-engined Cooper JCW won its class in the recent Nürburgring 24 Hour race, also wearing camouflage.
Mini product line boss Stefan Floeck previously told Autocar that the JCW E would be engineered to offer similar performance to its ICE counterpart.
For reference, the Cooper SE dispatches the 0-62mph sprint in 6.7sec and the previous-generation petrol JCW did it in 6.1sec.
Floeck implied that the JCW E would remain front-wheel-drive with a single motor, saying: “The most important thing when it’s a front-driven car is that on one side you have a big benefit, because the centre of gravity is lower, because you have the battery in the bottom.”
Although he said that the Cooper EV platform could accept dual-motor powertrains, it hadn’t yet been confirmed which powertrain the hot hatch would use.
Floeck added that Mini had worked to develop the “go-kart feeling” that defines the British brand.
“You also have a good balance with the weight balance in the front and back of the cars,” he said. “So the genes – a low centre of gravity and 50/50 weight balance – is better for driving dynamics.
“On the other side, you have a bit higher weight. So to deal with the higher weight, it’s a question of tyres for driving dynamics. So we will put different tyres on the car to handle this, which are a bigger diameter.”
The JCW E will be unveiled in full this autumn.
