Car manufacturers usually want to keep new, yet to be introduced models under wraps. Now that just about everyone on the street has a smartphone with a camera in their pocket, that is still quite difficult. The last resort? The ‘mule’, a prototype that has a different guise.
Car manufacturers do everything they can to keep new models hidden from prying eyes for as long as possible. However, all the masking work that passes in review daily on spy photos is often in vain effort. It is usually possible to deduce what car manufacturers are doing and a professional illustrator can often make a good estimate of the final design based on camouflaged prototypes.
The latter becomes a lot more difficult when car manufacturers use so-called ‘mules’ in the test work. In fact, a mule is nothing more than a prototype in which all the technology of the new model has been put in, but which does not yet have the final design. The origin of the term ‘mule’ cannot be identified unambiguously. ‘Mule’ is English for mule, a cross between a horse and a donkey. Since a ‘mule’ in the car industry is also a cross, the term probably comes from there. In addition, you could also see the prototypes as ‘pack animals’ for the testing work. It is unclear who exactly brought the concept into the world. From the 50s mentioned some car magazines in any case already in their interpretation. The American magazine Road & Track For example, wrote in 1956 that the prototype for the Chevrolet Corvette was called ‘the mule’.
Different ways
For the exterior of the mule, manufacturers often use a different model from their range or the current generation of the car that is coming. It is of course useful if the mule has a similar size to the car for which it is used. Sometimes it is also the case that people borrow the bodywork from another brand in the hope of sowing ultimate confusion. A recent example of this is the mule of the Kia e-Niro that Genesis used at the end of last year to test a presumably new electric SUV. In this case, it is clear to see that it is a concealment, especially due to the makeshift way in which the e-Niro has been stretched and the wheel arches cut out.
“That’s a weird e-Niro ?!”
Another example of this approach is the Lotus Exige with French genes in photo 3. While Kia is another group member of Genesis, Lotus and Alpine are quite a bit further apart. With the knowledge of today, we know that this was the test work for the Alpine A110. The Exige was probably a suitable candidate as mule because the two sports cars resemble each other in size and layout. The French license plate betrayed the Lotus, however, just like the fiercely flared fenders and the convex rear bumper.
It is of course easier as a car brand when you have a suitable mule in your own ranks. For example, in 2015 Volvo carried out the test work for the XC40 with a significantly increased V40. Compared to the e-Niro, the work was apparently quite neat. Only the widening for the fenders is a bit clumsy glued, but for the rest the prototype looks like a regular V40 with visible logos. However, height is difficult to hide, so that in this situation it is clearly a mule. McLaren took more or less the same approach with the prototype for the Speedtail (photo 5). At first glance this seems to be a 720S, but the central seating position of the driver and the large exterior mirrors immediately suggest that there is more to it.
The Volvo V40 on steroids.
Pointless exercise?
It becomes simpler when the prototype is a successor to the current model, as was the case with the Audi A7. Then you can simply grab the current model and cram the technology of the new model into it without too many external adjustments (photo 4). An unsuspecting passerby wouldn’t pay attention to it. The list of examples from this article is of course just a selection from the range of recent years, there are countless examples of mules to be found.
You might think that it is a pointless exercise. Why all that trouble when auto journalists can still figure out what the specific situations are about? The latter may well be the case, but then the question still remains what the car in question will ultimately look like. There really is no better disguise.