Why do electric cars have to look like that?

[DwightFrye]

I have to agree that the Teslas, other than the Model S are not very attractive. Elon really needs to hire some better stylists.
I have seen photos of the new Fisker line of EV's and they are beautiful. However they are about 2 years away from actual production and given Fisker's track record, who knows if we will ever see them.

I have always felt that the incredibly ugly styling of vehicles like the Chevy Bolt or Prius and a few others was intentionally designed to make them stand out from all the other vehicles that look so much alike that you don't know who made them unless you look at the badge.

The owners want to say "Hey, look at me. I'm woke and I'm special". I sure saw a lot of Prius' with Bernie bumper stickers back in 2016.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Seen the new Audi CUV the Etron.
It looks great would love to have one.

I think the game for pure EV cars is range. Thats why they are so small and aero makes a lot of decisions on design.

I think a better value for most folks is a hybrid car not pure EV.

The e-tron range is 200 miles. They are beautiful, but are selling at a discount right now due to poor sales.

 

[4WD]

Seen the new Audi CUV the Etron.
It looks great would love to have one.

I think the game for pure EV cars is range. Thats why they are so small and aero makes a lot of decisions on design.

I think a better value for most folks is a hybrid car not pure EV.

No doubt they need to slice the wind. What else do they work besides battery technology? Motor efficiency is key but the regeneration technology (brakes) is also a big deal in the range calculation …
The final Cybertruck will have an amazing number of wind tunnel hours … a larger battery seems a “Musk have”

 

[Silver]

The pug nose of the earlier Teslas reminds me of this scene.

 

[AutoMechanic]

Yes I agree I hate the designs of all the electric cars I would never want to own an electric one anyway but all are ugly as most new cars are ugly too even the gas powered ones lol.

 

[kschachn]

...

 

[Gene K]

Well, when I was a kid, electric cars looked like this, and had a top speed of 40MPH. Things sure have gotten better!

View attachment 28437

I grew up in a town if 3,000 people and a local guy had one of those he used to run around town. Brings back memories

As to the original question, The original Prius was rather ordinary looking and didn't do as well as the more extreme looking models. The manufacturers have learned that while it may be important to the potential customer to drive a "Green" Vehicle it is also highly important to be "Seen" to drive said vehicle. So the market is like Sports Cars in that a design that gets attention is highly desired.

Tesla has a unique niche in that it has had success in the luxury market. Because of this expectations are different.

I see the Tesla 3 as the Electric equivalent of the BMW 3-Series.

 

[Cujet]

I'm going to have to say that EV's that replace the grill area with a "flat spot" are weird looking and I don't care for the look. Form should follow function and I see no reason to pay homage to a radiator grill by creating a large area that is simply devoid of a grill.

While the classic Porsche 911 looks really, really dated to me, it's a car that had no grill and looked good in it's day.

 

[Job]

I grew up in a town if 3,000 people and a local guy had one of those he used to run around town. Brings back memories

As to the original question, The original Prius was rather ordinary looking and didn't do as well as the more extreme looking models. The manufacturers have learned that while it may be important to the potential customer to drive a "Green" Vehicle it is also highly important to be "Seen" to drive said vehicle. So the market is like Sports Cars in that a design that gets attention is highly desired.

Tesla has a unique niche in that it has had success in the luxury market. Because of this expectations are different.

I see the Tesla 3 as the Electric equivalent of the BMW 3-Series.

I know a few Prius owners, including a family member, and none of them consider "being seen." I think that idea was made up out of thin air and somehow stuck around.

 

[OVERKILL]

I know a few Prius owners, including a family member, and none of them consider "being seen." I think that idea was made up out of thin air and somehow stuck around.

It's a real thing, but may make up a smaller subset of Prius ownership than perceived. I know I've posted about it before, but there is a Prius owner locally who drives around with huge "58mpg vehicle" stickers all over the thing.

 

[ollie]

I think one of the hottest cars on the market is the new RAV4 Prime. It's the best of both worlds. With an all EV range of 42 miles it is the perfect car for around the town use. If you want to use both the gas and EV combined it has a 0 - 60 time of under 6 seconds. Toyota is coming up with some state of the art vehicles that are very reliable.

 

[JeffKeryk]

There are ugly cars and handsome cars. EVs are cars. Of course I am a lousy photographer.