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Comment by pmilla1606 | Hacker News Reader

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pmilla1606·

To differentiate themselves I think. I didn't like them at first either but they grew on me.

Car design is tricky - you have to design for peoples tastes 5+ years in the future.

(I know nothing about car design)

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Standing out for the sake of standing out is the biggest problem with the design of electric cars.

I don't see why they have to be made "unusual" or atypical looking just because it doesn't have a gas-fuelled engine.

I think Neil Young was on a similar page (okay, maybe not full electric but still):

http://www.lincvolt.com/

Image: https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fd3lp4xedbqa...

In some cases it's because the "unusual" design is actually more aerodynamic, so they are taking advantage of the "this is totally new and different" thing to finally push those changes out and make them acceptable. Like the wheel covers on the Honda EVs. They would actually make the ICE cars more efficient too, but people just get turned off by the look.

Tesla went in the opposite direction, the anti-Prius design. Maybe it was intentional, but when I see a Tesla on the road (in the Midwest, not super common like in California), I have to really look at it while I ask myself "is that a Tesla?" because from some angles it could be a Jaguar, a BMW, an Audi, any generic luxury car. Nothing about it screams "look at me!", it seems designed to blend in.

There's nothing wrong with that approach, just presenting you with a counter-point. One of the most successful EVs on the market is intentionally designed to stand out in a crowd (the Prius) while another is (I think intentionally) designed to not stand out.

It comes and goes but every so often you get a generation of cars looking kinda weird. The logic is that it's better to inspire a reaction, postive or negative rather than being beige.

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