Pure-electric MINI Cooper S hot hatch coming

Industry gospel insists Volkswagen created the modern hot-hatch with the Golf Mark I GTI and Peugeot perfected it with the 205 GTi.

Now, Mini is looking to move the entire genre into a cleaner new world.

Pointedly, the news of the Cooper S E is trickling out from Munich, rather than Mini’s Brexit turmoil-hit British homeland.

That’s fitting, because the Cooper S E’s entire electric powertrain and architecture are from BMW.

Firstly, the Cooper S E will be built off a massively remodeled UKL1 front-wheel drive platform (shared with the X1, the 2-Series Active Tourer and the X2).

Secondly, it’s based around the ramped-up electric motor from the BMW i3 S, which means it will have 135kW of power and 270Nm of instant torque, or 10kW and 20Nm more than the standard i3.

There are no claimed performance figures for the Cooper S E, but it would be in the region of the i3 S’s 6.9 seconds to 100km/h or even faster, with especially strong rolling acceleration.

By comparison, the current Cooper S boasts 141kW and 280Nm, so the electric version won’t be too far away on outputs, though it’s certain to be quite a bit heavier.

It’s likely to run a next-generation version of the i3’s battery pack, which carries 94Ah of electric capacity and it should have at least the i3’s 200km of EV range, but probably more.

It’s also likely to land in Australia at less than the i3 S’s $69,900 (plus ORCs) sticker price, because it won’t use the exotic carbon-fibre body and spaceframe aluminium frame of the tall-riding city car.

The Cooper S E’s power pack will be exclusive to the three-door bodyshell – though Mini has said that before and changed its mind.

The Cooper S E will be a 60th birthday present to itself, much like the S2000 was a self-gift to and from Honda.

It’s a long way from Mini’s first EV, though. It has an EV history dating back to the early 2008, and the Cooper S E was previewed in 2017 with the Mini Electric concept. It even hit the New York motor show this year with an EV powertrain retrofitted into a classic Cooper.