Michael Leiters said that customer demand will ultimately dictate what future forms the production car takes.

The Porsche Mission S concept car that was recently revealed is meant to point the way towards the automaker’s future—one where a new flagship supercar above the 911 pushes the brand upmarket while strengthening ties to the company’s past. And that future, it seems, could include an old-fashioned row-your-own transmission.

During remarks at the launch event in New York City, Porsche CEO Dr. Michael Leiters stressed that the new supercar has a flexible platform that’s compatible with multiple powertrains, and he specifically said that it could be powered by either pure internal-combustion engines or hybrid ones. More interestingly, it can also accept either manual or PDK-style automatic transmissions.

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“Customer demand will define what we build on this platform,” he told one of our colleagues at Road & Track.

Leiters ought to be trusted; not only is he the big man in charge at Zuffenhausen, but he also played no small role in the Mission S’s creation. As he told the assembled media at the debut, six months ago, he personally went to the recently appointed head of design Tobias Sühlmann and said the brand needed a new mid-engined supercar with a new design language.

The result? The Mission S. “This is a car that screams I want to drive it. That screams Porsche,” Sühlmann said.

As for whatever might be powering the Mission S that was unveiled, Leiters and Sühlmann weren’t talking.

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