Love Taycan but its not Mission-E

[achaudh]

Taycan for me is the most beautiful car ever. Having said that, I was a little disappointed when Taycan came out as I was blown away by how Mission E looked. Wish Porsche kept the exact same looks (minus the suicide doors). Was going thru some of those Mission E pics and thought of sharing. Kudos to Porsche designers who came up with this design. Beautiful from every angle.

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[n3ophyte]

Typical of most concept cars. Some features are unsafe, impractical or uneconomic to manufacture at scale so get toned down or dropped completely. Many think Porsche did a good job of staying faithful to the Mission-e concept. Anyway, this was discussed to death 4 years ago.

That said, I’d happily splash out for a set of these Rotiforms if I could …

 

[kempez]

And here's me being hugely impressed that the Taycan looked so good and so close to the Mission-E concept and that Porsche did such a great job

 

[Jenner]

My 2 cents:

I too fell in love with the Mission E and placed a deposit for one in 2015 at the same time I ordered a GT4 from my dealer. This was before the concept car and "Mission-E" name were even released. It was just on the rumors and pictures of a Porsche EV. And like you I was disappointed with how much was "lost" from the concept car.

Having said that I found out first hand the Taycan for some reason looks 1000x better in person than it does in pictures. It doesn't photograph well and I cannot pinpoint why.

In stock form it is a little too high stock and the wheels are too tucked in. You will trade a little range/efficiency putting spacers on, but from my own experience with my Taycan the combo of lowering and spacers transformed it from great looking to supercar looking. It has real presence that it lacked in stock form.

For me the huge fender flares and widebody look from the Mission-E is what I miss the most. The double door/suicide door concept is a huge loss too but I really didn't expect them to include that (until I saw Ferrari steal it and make it to production ) But to be realistic the large fenders and widebody don't work for range on an EV at this point in time of battery technology. Once battery size/weight goes down and range goes up designers will be able to "afford" less aerodynamic shapes.

So as much as the Taycan is NOT the Mission-E, it is damn close (at least Gen 1 is) and based on Porsche's history and evolution of their cars they absolutely could NOT release the Taycan as the Mission-E because they would have no where left to go or evolve the model over time and get you to buy a new one!

So Porsche takes the optimal design/concept and then purposefully "dumbs it down" in the looks department so they can evolve it over time. For example the 992 looks with its wide body and front fenders looks so much better compared to the 991 or the 997 vs the 996.

You'll have to wait another 5-10 years for the Taycan to evolve into something much much closer to the Mission E. If you can't wait that long then I suggest making sure to see a white Taycan with the Mission-E in wheels in person and make sure it is sitting in the lowest stock suspension setting and you just might change your mind.

 

[f1eng]

I am odd in that the interior styling is what counts for me, that is what I see most. I find that the Taycan is near enough to the Mission E for me styling wise to be happy with its looks.

Mind you I went for the Cross Turismo for its practicality with my dog and the extra 20mm bump travel for the dreadful roads around here, despite hating the black plastic trim on the wheel-arches.
So mine whilst not as nice looking as the saloon is the best car I could find for me.

 

[j.w.s]

Taycan for me is the most beautiful car ever. Having said that, I was a little disappointed when Taycan came out as I was blown away by how Mission E looked. Wish Porsche kept the exact same looks (minus the suicide doors). Was going thru some of those Mission E pics and thought of sharing. Kudos to Porsche designers who came up with this design. Beautiful from every angle.

Measured as % similarity to the concept car, the production Taycan ranks WAY up there - especially given how wild the concept was. It's not identical to the concept, but it's a much better interpretation than most... especially in white with Mission-e style rims optioned.

As an illustration of how bad it could have been, I give you the Pontiac Sunfire, production car versus the concept car:

 

[achaudh]

My 2 cents:

I too fell in love with the Mission E and placed a deposit for one in 2015 at the same time I ordered a GT4 from my dealer. This was before the concept car and "Mission-E" name were even released. It was just on the rumors and pictures of a Porsche EV. And like you I was disappointed with how much was "lost" from the concept car.

Having said that I found out first hand the Taycan for some reason looks 1000x better in person than it does in pictures. It doesn't photograph well and I cannot pinpoint why.

In stock form it is a little too high stock and the wheels are too tucked in. You will trade a little range/efficiency putting spacers on, but from my own experience with my Taycan the combo of lowering and spacers transformed it from great looking to supercar looking. It has real presence that it lacked in stock form.

For me the huge fender flares and widebody look from the Mission-E is what I miss the most. The double door/suicide door concept is a huge loss too but I really didn't expect them to include that (until I saw Ferrari steal it and make it to production ) But to be realistic the large fenders and widebody don't work for range on an EV at this point in time of battery technology. Once battery size/weight goes down and range goes up designers will be able to "afford" less aerodynamic shapes.

So as much as the Taycan is NOT the Mission-E, it is damn close (at least Gen 1 is) and based on Porsche's history and evolution of their cars they absolutely could NOT release the Taycan as the Mission-E because they would have no where left to go or evolve the model over time and get you to buy a new one!

So Porsche takes the optimal design/concept and then purposefully "dumb it down" in the looks department so they can evolve it over time. Just look at how much better the 992 looks with its wide body and front fenders compared to the 991 or the 997 vs the 996.

You'll have to wait another 5-10 years for the Taycan to evolve into something much much closer to the Mission E. If you can't wait that long then I suggest making sure to see a white Taycan with the Mission-E in wheels in person and make sure it is sitting in the lowest stock suspension setting and you just might change your mind.

Completely agree with everything you have mentioned here. Those huge fender flares are what I feel were made more conservative in the prod version changing the look to a great extent. You can see that flaring fender pedigree being maintained in Mission X/R concepts as well. It just gives the car a very sporty look. Though, Porsche did well to still keep the prod Taycan fairly close to the concept. May be in future releases, we may see that killer look.

 

[achaudh]

I am odd in that the interior styling is what counts for me, that is what I see most. I find that the Taycan is near enough to the Mission E for me styling wise to be happy with its looks.

Mind you I went for the Cross Turismo for its practicality with my dog and the extra 20mm bump travel for the dreadful roads around here, despite hating the black plastic trim on the wheel-arches.
So mine whilst not as nice looking as the saloon is the best car I could find for me.

Purely from look perspective, I do not see a better looking car in this price range than Taycan, EV or ICE.

 

[Caraholic]

Agreed I was also disappointed when the final build was released. With that said I do think it’s still the best looking sedan made hands down

 

[WuffvonTrips]

Externally, the only significant difference I see from the concept illustrations (which in retrospect look like AI renderings of the actual production version) is the ridiculously cartoonish wheels. To be fair, many concept drawings feature impractical wheels, but the Mission E takes the biscuit with ones so oversize and protruding from the body that the front steering angle range is as restricted as that of the RAS, suggesting a turning circle of a few hundred metres.

 

[eisenb11]

Externally, the only significant difference I see from the concept illustrations (which in retrospect look like AI renderings of the actual production version) is the ridiculously cartoonish wheels. To be fair, many concept drawings feature impractical wheels, but the Mission E takes the biscuit with ones so oversize and protruding from the body that the front steering angle range is as restricted as that of the RAS, suggesting a turning circle of a few hundred metres.

The main difference (other than the suicide doors) is that it’s a lot shorter. Look at the size of the rear door compared to ours. I fell in love with Mission E because it looked like a more futuristic but slightly larger 911. The Taycan did preserve a lot of that feel, but it’s a lot larger than the concept. The Taycan is the same length as a BMW 5-series. I’d love to see Porsche release an EV car (don’t care if it’s 2 or 4 door) that’s anywhere between the 911 and a Tesla Model 3 in length. I know the Cayman EV is coming, but I can’t get away with a pure 2-seater.

Although maybe I’m hindsight, maybe it’s just the proportions playing tricks with my brain. I’d still prefer a slightly smaller car though.

 

[achaudh]

From concept to production, most cars change drastically. The one I found making it to production with minimal changes from concept was Audi Etron GT. The worst has to be Mercedes EQS. I liked the concept but puked when I saw a blob of a car when it was released. What a shame!

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