The head of Mini says he wants to transform John Cooper Works into a “real electric performance” sub-brand.

Bernd Körber, who heads up the Mini brand under the BMW Group banner, suggested to Auto Express that JCW would eventually become a “full-blown sub-brand”.

“The next phase of our portfolio is also about the next generation of John Cooper Works,” Körber told the publication.

“The perception, I would say, when you look at John Cooper Works, it’s not the perception of a full-blown sub-brand. People very often perceive it as our top model or performance model. What we would like to do is make John Cooper Works a real electric performance brand,” he explained.

According to Auto Express, Körber suggested the first models under this proposed sub-brand would arrive only from 2024, at the earliest.

“There will still be a market and customer demand for ICE [internal combustion engine] John Cooper Works, but ultimately the performance will be electrified, and for Mini it fits,” he said.

Körber furthermore confirmed JCW could potentially end up developing its own standalone performance variants (rather than merely basing them on existing, standard Mini models) but cautioned this wasn’t planned “at this stage”.

Original article from Car