Porsche Mission E prototype spotted – EV X6 rival on its way?

Remember Porsche’s Mission E?

The dazzling all-electric showstopper that made its debut at the 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show was always expected to spawn a battery-powered production Porsche, but the hacked-up test mule recently snapped by our spy photographers suggests Porsche’s electron-burner may look radically different from the sleek form that wowed the crowds at Frankfurt.

Add-on wheelarches close the gap between the standard Porsche Panamera panels and the tyres, but it’s not clear whether this mule previews the Mission E’s final form – after all, prototypes such as these often use whatever bodywork is big enough to cloak the truly secret stuff underneath.

The Mission E Frankfurt concept took the form of an elegant four-door not too dissimilar to the Panamera, and with the recently-launched second-generation Panamera now boasting larger dimensions there’s the potential for the Mission E’s production counterpart to slot in beneath it.

Whatever the case may be, Porsche’s electric car won’t be niche. Porsche CEO Oliver Blume is on the record as saying the Mission E’s production variant is expected to sell in the region of 20,000 cars per year – healthy volumes for an electric vehicle, let alone one with a premium pricetag.

All should be revealed closer to 2019, when Porsche’s first all-electric model is expected to enter production.