Porsche once seemed willing to build an MPV designed for families. The carmaker even made a concept in 2018 and kept it a secret for two years. It finally unveiled it in 2020, with the "Porsche Unseen" book.
The sports car manufacturer built the Porsche Vision Renndienst in 2018 but kept it behind closed doors until the "Porsche Unseen" came out to reveal a list of 15 concept cars that had never been shown to the world before.
With a futuristic look and minimalist design, the Renndienst was a full-scale tribute to the original Volkswagen race service van, which was basically a modded Volkswagen Type 2, serving the racing team in the 1950s and 1960s. The Renndienst is Porsche's idea of how a sporty MPV should look.
Porsche’s chief designer, Michael Mauer, wanted it to look like a space shuttle, and it pretty much turned out looking like one. It is unlike anything Porsche has ever built.
It sports a flat-fronted body, has powerfully flared wheel arches, and comes with an asymmetrical window design, checking all the boxes of unconventional.
The four-point headlights were shown for the first time on this concept. A variation of the design debuted with the Porsche Taycan, the brand's first EV, in 2019.
Photo: Porsche
The six-seat modular cabin features a central lounge chair for the driver, similar to what we have seen in hypercars like the McLaren F1 or Speedtail, for instance. There are two seats in the second row and a bench that can accommodate three passengers at the back.
The van sports an asymmetrical door layout, with one sliding door and a small window on what was supposed to be the driver's side, if it wasn't for the central seating, and two on the right side, with way more glass.
They both feature touch controls, but none of them is functional, while the seats are not to be seated in, as they are there just for the sake of desgin. It is yet another confirmation that Porsche never intended to put this vehicle into production. There is no B-pillar, so ingress and egress should be easy.
The concept is powered by an all-electric drive technology with the battery mounted in the underbody to save space and a completely flat floor except for the wheel well areas, cutting into the space on board the vehicle.
There are no conventional mirrors but video cameras that capture images and transfer them to screens that flank the curved digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel, which is already on the Porsche production models.
The Porsche Vision Renndienst is its maiden voyage outside Europe. The concept arrived in Singapore, at the Porsche Studio, where the owner of the Sgcarmart YouTube channel checked it out.
The vehicle is just experimental. So, we won't be seeing a Porsche MPV on the road any time soon. However, people were surprised when they first saw the first Porsche SUV, the Cayenne, back in 2002.
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