GreggT

Well.....unfortunately it does appear that the Porsche bean counters may have won out over the design team.
Porsche CEO Oliver Blume recently was quoted as saying..."the design is now fixed."
So take the camo off the mules and I'm afraid that may be it.

Hope I'm wrong but it's not looking good.

500

I don't think that the design being fixed necessarily means that the prototypes are of the "fixed design". Might be wrong, but I don't think that statement really tells us much.

In that same interview, he also said that the final design is quite close to the show car. Again, that may not really tell us much as one person's "quite close" can be another person's "miles apart" - obviously a lot of subjectivity involved.

Still feels too early to tell. I am not ready to conclude that the actual car won't look good.

GT6ixer

^agree

GreggT

Appreciate your optimism........however, the cars in winter testing are not really 'prototypes'.
Test mules historically are camo'd versions of something pretty close to end design. It would be less than efficient product development to take time/energy/money to build a second and then a third (significantly different) complete automobile. Obviously none of us know for sure but I have watched product development 986/993-forward and I'm just saying.....for Porsche, come summer, to start testing a third design, more like the original design study......would surprise me.
Hope I am wrong.

928 GT R

I remain optimistic that the prototypes seen in the winter testing are Pano bodied platform mules and that the original design will come to "lite" or light in the near future.

Porsche has created so many objects or lustful desirability that I am confident that they will not let us down after displaying the Mission E prototype.

Cheers!

lowpue

I agree...I still have hope. IF they stick with original concept it will be transformational and they will definitely become the leader. If its test mule, I think it means they are going to be conservative and no one will really care because tesla will blow them away.

Mick_D

I'm in even if they don't change a thing from the mules. An all-electric Porsche for $85K? Where do I sign?

lowpue

I wish I can say that....for me I need something more to take the plunge on electric instead of gas. I have to love it....so I am still hoping on the concept design. Its a real shame if they abandon that stunning design. I would argue that design would be the first time Porsche actually competes with the Italians for looks.

Wing Commander

daveo4porsche

all you need to do is drive an EV and you'll love it - you seem to be implying driving it will suck so it's design has to be the compensating factor - I think you'll find driving any EV is awesome - and care less about the design once you are won over in the driving category - I love driving even my Bolt - no style icon by anyone's standard, but the instant 200 ft/lbs of torque makes up for a lot of ugly! and my P85D still brings a smile to my face at every stop light that turns green.

cluster_fsck

I'll bet they are, but have to apply some practical realities to actually building it at scale. The concept car was built to answer certain questions, and pretty sure that maintainability, reliability, ease of manufacture and service, and likely even safety, weren't chief among them. Although I'm in a continuous state of drool over the front-end of the concept car, it's just not a feasible design. The rounded nose is on piece that goes up into the headlight housing and around the front wheel wells. Getting into a minor fender bender with a design like that would be insane from a replacement perspective. Just building that one piece would be incredibly difficult as well. If you look the 918's front end differences between the concept and production car, you can clearly see where real-world constraints like safety, ease of repair and manufacturing concerns took that one-piece nose into a multi-part product.

I think the spy shots we're seeing are very close to the final design (hence all the camo and cladding), but I'll bet a few things are still in play and have to be refined before manufacturing begins. Some car makers never let their concept cars see the light of day after the reveal at an auto show, but Porsche has been extremely, almost conspicuously, public with the Mission E. If they weren't going to be close to that design, why give it over to a auto journalist to do test laps in a publication that not only got to write about the experience, but publish copious photos (some more detailed than Porsche's own marketing photos)?

My hopes are high that it's a close cousin to the concept car, much like the 918. Since the launch of the 991, Porsche has been on a much more controlled approach with their brand awareness, controlling information and engineering their marketing stories much more finely. To a certain extent, they allow those spy shots to live in the wild because of buzz and excitement it builds, so unless they're total idiots, they have to know that we want that car to be as awesome as they do.

lowpue

I agree with you....I have added a Mercedes b250e to the stable to try out the electric experience and even with its short range it is really quite a car. However, If the looks of the Porsche is not stellar, I think there are many other electrics like Tesla (which I like better than pano) that would make more sense to opt for. Porsche does need to up its game in exterior design especially Mission E is its future rather than leverage the pano design which even when new almost a decade ago was unspectacular and certainly is even more so today. That is what I don't understand with their current path.

orthofrancis

Fixed as in set in stone/finalized, or corrected/improved? the language is vague.

GreggT

Yep....I know....all speculation at this point....however.....many of us have seen Porsche bring a number of different models to market through the years. We're not the average crowd following the next design of the F150 pick-up.
Porsche is fairly predictable in the last 18 months before launch......and we'll see more Weissach spy pics as spring approaches.

As I've said, I think it's less than likely that they would now (after the mules) make a third 'corrected/improved' body that would swing back in the direction of the original 2015 design study.
If the mules are already 'corrected/improved' and finalized.......well.
Then, I could be totally left-field

wogamax

It may be different, this time. For example, Boxster was a speedy turn-around from concept to production, with the company shooting for sales. Mission E will be less profitable, it's uncertain VWG can access the batteries that will make them want to make a big deal out of it, and possible an attempt to "manage demand" could result in what many other EVs have suffered. BMW hasn't yet done a compelling all-electric, with its i3 sporting 155mm tires, frozen rear windows and two-tone plastic. Mission E dropped its suicide doors, but could still find another way to limit demand, including aesthetics.