The same day that BMW trotted out it ‘s highly anticipated 2013 MINI hatch just happens to be the day that the first photos of the front wheel drive 1 Series show up via Worldcarfans.com. Can you tell these cars are sharing development cycles?

What you see above are BMW ‘s first forays into a front wheel drive city car meant for the masses. As we ‘ve previously reported it will be built on the UKL platform that will underpin everything from the next generation MINI to the Z1 (or Z2 depending on who you talk to. Specifically what we see here is the five door that we reported on a while back.

We believe the car will debut sometime late next year. However what BMW plans on doing to not compete with the MINI launch during that same time-frame we don ‘t quite no. Regardless, the car (known internally as the 1001) will be offered in three and five door variations that will offer the same space and general performance of the F56 MINI. So how will BMW be able to actually give each car it’s own character? Reportedly BMW feels confident that software, design and marketing will be enough to make them each unique. This is clearly the big hurdle that we all question can be overcome.

You can see the full photo above along with an entire gallery at WCF.