limegreen

Does anyone know if Porsche ever officially responded to these comments made by Rohrl in this article?

manitou202

Did he really change his mind?

https://electrek.co/2019/01/14/porsc...-walter-rohrl/

limegreen

Thanks for the update!

Well there is my answer.... Porsche responded to Rohrl's initial comments by either threatening him with legal action or by throwing money at him in order for him to "change his mind" in this video while he rides along with what appear to be his "handlers" consisting of an attorney and possibly a hit man

It even looks like he's being driven out into the country to be executed if he disagrees

Porsche, being the marketing superpower they are, took the smart path and rather than make a public stink by suing / firing / disowning him they decided to instead spin it into a PR stunt where Rohrl should instead have a sudden change of heart after experiencing the "incredible" and "tremendous" performance of the Taycan!

This is literally one of the most pathetic marketing ploys I've ever seen...

whiz944

The bald guy in the back seat definitely looks like a hit man... (Or Uncle Fester.)

The test car still has the fake dual exhaust tips on it too...

Cloudplay

No offense, but obviously you nothing about the man.

limegreen

daveo4porsche

that's ok Lime is just an EV hater, so he's disappointed to lose another talking point - regardless of how/why they did it - you can no longer say Walter "hates" EV's - cause on camera he just said the Porsche one is pretty good - that undermines the narrative that Lime would prefer to see play out…

to be honest I don't know why Walter hates EV's and a lot would depend on which one's he's driven before. If all I had driven was a Leaf or BMW i3 I would also "hated" EV's - I doubt Walter hates the 918 Spyder and he's now on record as liking the Taycan and it's ample power (a common characteristic of well designed/executed EV's)

good marketing is about management of the message, and Walter was clearly "off message" - they've gotten him back "on message" and that's why Porsche is both an excellent car manufacturer and a superior marketing force…

EV's are coming and this upsets some people - but they are increasingly in the minority.

Cloudplay

No, I know *about* him and I am a native German speaker, so I don't have to rely on the subtitles to understand what he is saying and in which tone. He has been in the spotlight in Germany for more than 40 years and throughout that time has shown that he cannot be bought. He is 71, has no kids and no need for Porsche's money. And he sure as hell isn't intimidated by a bald guy in the back seat.

Needsdecaf

Hey, I think it's pretty good. Everyone saves face. Walter says he still doesn't like it, but it's freaking fast. Which it honestly should be given what it's competing vehicles from Tesla have done.

But whatever.

unclewill

earl pottinger

What am I to think of this, this is not what I got from the video?

http://www.thedrive.com/news/26021/r...hes-evs-online

Earl Colby Pottinger (Tesla, Bollinger, Rivian and other BEVs fan)

manitou202

Well, that didn't last long.

Back to the drawing board Porsche Marketing.

unclewill

Needsdecaf

You are to think that he's being honest. The car offers tremendous performance and feels like a Porsche.

But it's electric and he doesn't like that. For whatever reason it may be, noise, battery weight, charging time, battery material economics, whatever, he doesn't like them. And he doesn't have to.

I'd rather him be honest than listen to more marketing babble.

daveo4porsche

in other words - even when personal demonstrated that the car is spectacular (he had high praise for the driving dynamics) - he still hates EV's - he's fact immune like some members of this forum.

a great driver, but lacks vision - his anti-EV rant was always his opinion which he is entitled to, but his claimed reasons were mostly hog-wash and easily dispensed with - he just doesn't like them, but for no other reason than they are different.

that's ok I don't like mushrooms for similar reasons (just can't eat them) - but lets not confuse that with an actual reason to avoid them.