Porsche Mission S leaks hours early and shows a 917-style rear cooling fan

Porsche's Mission S supercar concept has leaked online hours before its official reveal, which is scheduled for 16.30 ET today. Footage apparently taken in New York while Porsche's own photo team was shooting the car shows a mid-engined design with swollen fenders, an integrated hoop-style rear spoiler and a horizontally mounted cooling fan in the middle of the rear deck.

Porsche announced the Mission S project last week as part of its turnaround strategy, and had already released teasers including a shot of the car from above under a sheet. The leak gives a much clearer picture of what the company has been hiding.

A retro fan with a modern job

The detail getting classic Porsche fans excited is that rear-mounted fan, which resembles the much larger units fitted to racing cars like the 917 in the 1960s and 1970s. Those fans existed because the flat-8 and flat-12 engines of that era were air-cooled, a technology Porsche abandoned in the 1990s because of noise regulations.

Two pairs of stacked exhaust tips confirm the car has an engine, and some sources suggest it could be a flat-8, though the exact configuration and layout remain unconfirmed.

The fan's actual function is not explained in the leak. The safest reading is that it is a styling nod to the 917 rather than evidence Porsche has revived air cooling, since the exhausts prove a combustion engine is present but nothing in the footage confirms how it is cooled.

The rest of the design

The leaked footage shows handlers pulling a black cover off a supercar with fenders that envelop the rear, a look the footage invites comparison to the 911-based Marsien from Marc Philipp Gemballa, with shades of the BMW i8 as well. The roof has two glass panes above the occupants and a raised central spine that could possibly be a roof snorkel.

One caveat on authenticity: although the outlet behind the footage is confident it is a genuine leak, it cannot completely rule out that AI was involved in the images.

Hybrid powertrain is likely but unconfirmed

No powertrain details are official. Whatever engine sits under the deck, it is reasonable to expect hybrid technology of the kind used on the 918 Spyder and the 911 GTS and Turbo, perhaps with front motors for torque vectoring and a third motor working with the combustion engine at the rear, but all of that is speculation.

A volume supercar, not a 918 successor

The Mission S has been referred to as a successor to the 918 Spyder hypercar, but Top Gear says it is aiming for the supercar category and will be sold in bigger volume. That fits with Porsche's stated plan to improve profitability by building cars with higher margins.

Pricing and on-sale timing for a production version have not been announced. The reveal later today should settle the specification questions; the commercial details will likely take longer.

Close to half of Canadians who want an electric car as their next vehicle are putting off the purchase until Chinese brands reach showrooms, according to a survey from the think tank Clean Energy Canada. The September poll, conducted by Abacus Data, found 48% of respondents want an EV next, and 42% of those buyers are willing to wait until Chinese models go on sale before deciding.

The wait could pay off. Chinese manufacturers have a reputation for undercutting mainstream automakers on price while offering more technology, and Canada opened the door last January by replacing a 100% import tax with a quota system for some Chinese EVs.

The survey doesn't mean those buyers are committed to a Chinese car. Rather, Abacus Data found they don't want to make any decision until they can see what the new entrants offer. That is a meaningful bloc of the market sitting on its hands: several automakers, including Chery, Geely, BYD and Dongfeng, have confirmed plans to enter Canada, and Chinese brands have been building dealer networks since the quota change.

The holdouts have a clear rationale. Chinese EVs sometimes sell for the equivalent of $15,000 or $20,000 in their home market, and part of Ottawa's stated reason for admitting a quota was to inject more affordable options into the Canadian market. The catch is that nobody knows the Canadian prices yet, and they will almost certainly be higher than domestic Chinese price points once shipping, tariffs and dealer margins are layered in.

What it means for the market

The timing matters because Canadian EV uptake has stalled. Only 10.8% of new cars sold in the first half of 2026 were electric, and cheaper Chinese models are the most obvious lever to move that number.

The smarter read for buyers is that the survey describes a pause, not a stampede. If Chinese brands land at prices comparable to established rivals, the survey's own logic suggests many of those waiters will default to familiar names with proven service networks. How much cheaper the Chinese cars actually are will likely decide whether that 42% converts into sales.

What hasn't been announced is the detail buyers actually need: exact launch dates, model lineups and Canadian pricing for Chery, Geely, BYD and Dongfeng. Until those land, the 42% have little to compare against the incumbents, which is precisely the position they say they want to avoid.