The latest rumour to fly round the internet is that Porsche is planning a new hatch for 2012. No, not the hatchback Panamera saloon (we’ll see that a lot sooner) but a mid-sized hatch, based on the Mk6 VW Golf that will be shown at this year’s Paris motor show.
Sacrilege! Should any such monstrosity turn up – I don’t think it will – the underpinnings will date back to 2004. And whatever PR departments say about platform sharing, to me that means there would also be bits of Seat and Skoda in there too.
Now I know there’s a huge amount of environmental pressure on Porsche (and every other car manufacturer) to be greener, but I don’t think a Golf-sized hatch is the way forward for Stuttgart’s finest. If they must expand, I have a far better idea…
The Porsche supermini
Once the company has finished developing the Panamera (will history one day see this as Porsche’s biggest mistake, developing a big saloon just as the green tide turns?), it needs a 914 replacement.
An entry-level ultra-lightweight sports car, not quite Caterham-esque but sub-1000kg. On the VW Up platform perhaps? The micro-sized Up will also spawn Seat and Skoda variations, but imagine it a little lower and with a Porsche-tuned three-cylinder engine thrumming away out the back.
Wouldn’t it be great? If Porsche produced this car, it’d be one case where I wouldn’t care about platform sharing.
Click here to read more of Ben Pulman’s blogs
Click here to visit our blog homepage
Click here to visit CAR Online’s special
Porsche 60th anniversary microsite