DREAM FACTORY

PORSCHE RELEASED 15 CONCEPTS OUT OF NOWHERE – DESIGN BOSS MICHAEL MAUER TELLS US WHY

- CHRIS THOMPSON

MICHAEL MAUER is not a psychic. He doesn’t have tarot cards, nor would he likely be heard discussing palmistry in the Northern Rivers. The latter perhaps being because he lives and works in Germany as Porsche’s chief designer.

But because of his role, Mauer is often required to make attempts at predicting the future, or at the very least exploring its possibilities. Since 2004, Mauer has taken that part of his role within Porsche very seriously.

Michael Mauer is the man who designed the Porsche Panamera, is responsible for the way Porsche’s SUVs look, gave the 997 GT3 its mojo and the 991 911 that came after… and he is why Porsche’s 918 Spyder looks so completely stunning.

Mauer admits during a virtual meeting in December 2020 that he’s stressed. Not due to our call, or even work. Due to traffic. But once Mauer is comfortable at his desk he seems delighted to speak with us about the significance of his longest-running project.

In late 2020, Porsche began to roll out snippets of information on a top-secret project headed up by Mauer that was, in its infancy, never intended for public consumption. More than a dozen concept cars, ranging from scale models to functional vehicles, have been developed within the walls of the Porsche Design Studio in Weissach, the epicentre of creativity for the Stuttgart-based brand.

“You could say this idea started when [former CEO] Mattias Mueller was here,” Mauer tells Wheels, “and now is really pushed by [CEO] Oliver Blume even more, saying: ‘Just give me some ideas, possibilities, and what the brand could look like in 10 or 20 years… Show me possibilities that inspire me as a CEO, that inspire the whole brand.’”