Porsche last year unveiled what it said will be its first all-electric vehicle: the Mission E. The German automaker green-lighted the vehicle for production in December and announced a €1 billion investment to retrofit its factories in order to manufacture electric vehicles. The press was quick to call the Mission E a “Tesla Killer” despite the fact that it will not hit the market until the end of the decade.
The car might not be a “Tesla Killer” but it is already generating a lot of attention and recently won the prestigious ‘Concept Car Design of the year’ at Car Design Night at the 2016 Geneva International Motor Show, and rightfully so, I might add. The design is simply stunning. Now Electrek has learned that Tesla hired Porsche’s lead designer for the Mission E’s interior.
Félix Godard is a young car designer who has been working for Porsche for the last three years after completing a Master in Industrial Design from Strate School of Design, France, in 2012. He was credited as ‘lead designer’ on both the Mission E concept and its upcoming production version, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Last week, he joined Tesla’s design team under the leadership of Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s long-time Chief Designer, and Ivan Lampkin, Sr. Manager Interior Design at Tesla.
At Porsche, Godard is listed as an inventor on several patents for new instrument clusters and heads-up/holographic displays.
Here’s a quick look at the Mission E interior design (Godard is the man wearing a gray shirt in the video):
Godard is joining Tesla just a week after the automaker unveiled the first Model 3 prototypes, which were generally well-received, but the interior had Tesla enthusiasts puzzled. The lack of instrument cluster and the center 15-in display with all the controls raised a few eyebrows.
Some speculated that the concept is hinting at the possibility of either a heads-up display or fully autonomous technology integration. Musk commented that it will make more sense after the second part of the Model 3 unveiling, which will happen closer to production in late 2017.
One of the most attention-grabbing feature of the Porsche Mission E was its “holographic display” extending from the center to the passenger side. Porsche describes the display:
“The upper layer integrates the driver’s display, and between the levels there is a holographic display that extends far into the passenger’s side. It shows individually selectable apps, which are stacked in virtual space and arranged by priority with a three-dimensional effect. The driver – or passenger – can use these apps to touch-free control primary functions such as media, navigation, climate control, contacts and vehicle. The desired symbol is activated by gestures that are detected by sensors. A grasping gesture means select, while pulling means control. Moreover, driver or passenger can use a touch display on the centre console to control secondary functions such as detailed information menus.”
Here are a few pictures of the Mission E Concept interior:
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- Mission E interior concept
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- Mission E interior concept
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- Mission E interior concept
If you want to see more of Godard’s work, you can check out his blog where he posts some of his designs unrelated to Porsche. Also, he is not the only recent addition to Tesla’s design team. Last month, Tesla hired WooTak Kim, a young exterior designer from Mazda.
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Just FYI, latest word is the MissionE will be available early 2019. Excellence Magazine recently ran an interesting interview with the engineering team explaining why it will use a motor design superior to Tesla’s so as to be able to run laps “at speed” on a track (or do back-to-back-to-back acceleration runs) without going into “limp mode” due to overheating problems.
Will it be available for purchase from $70k?
Honestly, I think most EV sympathizers are at a point where we’ve seen enough thousand or more hp concepts and could care less about them.
We want something appealing and useful that we can actually buy and drive, not just drool over, and with that the VW group is absolutely nowhere.
What you see here is 2008, or phase one from the Tesla plan, but coming out in 2019.
Unfortunately, my guess is that the Porsche will probably START around the price of a P90 Ludicrous! However, I think that for the “price no object” guys the Porsche will be the WAY cooler alternative. Meanwhile, for you to say “the VW Group is nowhere” is ABSURD. The Q6 eTron is supposed to start at 60,000 Euros with a 95kWh battery which is significantly cheaper than the Model X, and of course in 2018/19 there will be a 200-mile EV Golf and maybe that Microbus concept they’ve been showing.
60k is a misquote from wherever you read it. It says above £60k and around $100k in two different places. Next to that, it only has one configuration, and that does 4.6s. So it is hardly on par with the current X for that price, even without counting the usual Tesla goodies (supercharger where VW is NOWHERE, and ota sw updates).
The golf and the partybus… lets get back to those are doing 200+mi on the EPA, not on NEDC which all EU manufacturers quote. That would put the golf EV 2018 at 130mi realistically, and the partybus is said to have the 95kwh+ battery too, from a third party, so no way its going to come cheap.
@Mark B Spiegel
Hey Mark, take your miss quotes back to your twiter acconut (or Seeking Alpha), this web is based on factual data, not your BS…
I suspect that the MissionE base price will be higher than that of a Panamera Turbo S; I’ll be astonished if you’ll be able to get one for less than $175k USD. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if it starts at $250k.
Sorry I didn’t have a chance to reply to your rudeness earlier but I got jammed up. Okay, so I guess you’re accusing John Voelcker of being a liar? http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1102333_next-volkswagen-e-golf-to-have-at-least-200-miles-of-range Okay, whatever. I’m now unsubscribing from this comment thread so don’t expect a further reply from me.
Porsche: “We will build a better electric race car than Tesla!”
Tesla: “…”
Tesla: “Did we try to build a race car? hmm….”
I agree i think the porshe would end up crazy expensive…. but it still wouldnt be able to compete with Tesla Motors… Tesla is a fresh, transparent company with a great track record, infastructure and integration/philosophy between Elon Musk’s companies… you cant really compete with that
Everyone knows you’re short Tesla stock. Everyone knows that being able to run laps at full speed over and over is of exactly zero relevance to Tesla stock.
In all fairness, track capability at some level has been a hallmark of performance sedans for a long time.
And that is one area where Tesla still has much work to do.
Does it matter to the everyday driver? Not in the slightest.
Does it matter when being compared to the competition, especially in Europe and particularly in Germany where a great many weekend warrior wannabe racers pay good money to run the ‘Ring? Absolutely.
Si, anche a vederla, esteticamente e’ un po’ troppo squadrata, gli mancano tanti piccoli dettagli che invece curano le macchine tedesche… E come vedi qui sotto si preparano a colmare il Gap
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Does MissionE rhyme with Porsche?
Now this is smart…..good for Tesla.
Have you seen the Mission E….wow. Since it is coming out before the 3, I might wait for this one. Although I have to do something in 18 months….maybe the Bolt which they say is about the same size as the 3, although not as cool looking.
A: The Mission is not set to come out before the 3.
B: it’s not in the same segment as the 3. We are talking about a $35k and up car versus something expected to be $125k and up.
Wow this looks absolutely stunning, but without a supercharger network, where do you charge it on long drives?
I agree, and they are talking about 800V battery so at given current, it *could* be charged twice as fast as a 400V battery. But then, there are currently no places to fast charge an 800V battery, and deal with Tesla won’t help that.
They could easily divide the battery in two 400V sections for charging, so a deal with Tesla would definitely help a lot.
This will be much higher than a Porsche Panamera Turbo. The R&D plus factory costs and new robots have to be factored into the car’s cost.
STUPID CENTER CONSOLE. Get rid of it.
Is there any timeline or information which people tesla is hireing? Would be very interesting!