BMW has announced how it plans to embrace electrification in the future, revealing the development of a flexible vehicle architecture that will enable every model and series to be electrified, either as a plug-in hybrid or all-electric model. Part of this strategy will include an all-electric Mini starting production in 2019 based on the current three-door hatchback. The electric drivetrain will be built at BMW's e-mobility center in Bavaria before being integrated into the car at Mini's Oxford plant, despite previous concerns over Brexit.

"Electrification is one of the central pillars of the BMW Group's corporate strategy NUMBER ONE > NEXT and the company has announced that all brands and model series can be electrified, with a full-electric or plug-in hybrid drivetrain being offered in addition to the combustion engine option," BMW said in a statement. "Additional electrified models will be brought to market in the coming years and beyond 2020, the company's next generation vehicle architecture will be structured in order to enable new models also to be offered as a full-electric vehicle." An all-electric Mini has been in the pipeline for a long time now - remember the Mini-E prototype BMW built in 2008?

It ultimately paved the way for the BMW i3, but never spawned a production all-electric Mini, bizarrely. "BMW Group Plants Dingolfing and Landshut play a leading role within our global production network as the company's global competence centre for electric mobility," said Oliver Zipse, BMW AG Management Board member for Production. "Our adaptable production system is innovative and able to react rapidly to changing customer demand. If required, we can increase production of electric drivetrain motor components quickly and efficiently, in line with market developments." BMW's electrified model range will expand rapidly in the next few years.

Next year will see the launch of the hotly anticipated BMW i8 Roadster. There's also the all-electric X3 slated for 2020, while the BMW iNEXT will follow in 2021. BMW expects electrified vehicles to account for between 15 to 25 percent of sales by 2025. Factors such as regulation, incentives and charging infrastructure will determine the scale of electrified vehicles from market to market. Because of this, BMW will develop a modular platform that allows models with a combustion engine, plug-in hybrid or fully electric drive train at the same time.