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Comment by dv_dt | Hacker News Reader

I see Honda too has fallen prey to the EV alien styling curse. It really seems that conventional car makers are more susceptible, or is this some sort of intentional thing to limit demand to keep production capacity from being swamped?

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This doesn't look like an alien or a robot as some cars do. It looks like a zero texture 1980s VW golf/rabbit with a dorky grill. Like something out of the Cars movie or a video game with no budget for licenses.

I don't think it's alien (a la BMW), I think it's a really neat piece of future retro design. It's a concept drawing brought to life.

Most of the time I agree that EVs looks stupid (and Honda designs of last 10+ years are not great), BUT to me this loks really cool.

I love that the design is vaguely reminiscent of the original Honda Civic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Civic_(first_generation)...

I came in here to say this car looks great! It's design is very clean which is not something I could say about Honda's current over styled design language.

For some reason the original concept car actually looks pretty good to me, but the finalized version seems much more amorphous blob.

Electric cars are still an oddity, so I can understand manufacturers employing weird styling like this, because the kind of pioneering people buying a electric city car will want to advertise that they're driving something special. I don't like the look of it at all though.

Do you sell more electric cars by emphasizing their oddity, or by emphasizing their regularity?

At this stage, for a small car, you probably don't want it looking the same as other normal small cars that are half the price.

I think it's interesting that the Nissan Leaf seems to have taken on a more normal appearance that it did at it's introduction. But maybe that's part of the marketing progression, start by grabbing attention and as you expand dial back the attention getting styling and move to a different grouping of customers.

It's obviously a retro-modern take on the 1967 Honda N360. For what it's worth, most of the motoring press think that it looks fantastic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_N360

I don't think it's alien, in fact it's more nostalgic/retro, brings to my mind the Renault 4.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_4

I see two parts to its design.

The major form is just a generic small city car, which is clearly the target market for this design. The short wheelbase combined with maximized passenger compartment leaves little room for any other form, whether electric or ICE. As others have mentioned, it looks similar to many other subcompact economy cars.

The minor styling to me is not just retro but references the low-budget street racer scene. Flat shading and almost shaved appearance, not unlike second hand cars I would see among teenagers and twenty-somethings, stripped of their OEM trim to cleanse it of the stuffy practicality of its original owners.

I didn't get alien at all. In fact it reminded me very strongly of an 80s/early 90s VW Golf.

I can see the resemblance, but cars of that era were much more angular. (Saturn made a big impression in the late '80s just by adding a little bit of curviness.)

I think this is why some people react to the design as 'alien'; it looks almost like an old Golf, but then things like the curved hood and the rounded corners on the headlight/grill assembly push it over into the Uncanny Valley.

Alien, really? Looks like its coming from their roots. To me it looks like a modern retro design of a z600 from the early 70s. Definitely not alien though.

What's the point of buying an EV if it doesn't let your neighbors know you're better than they are?

I wish I could find it now, but I saw a survey/study a while back that showed that the weird looks of EVs are actually a selling point. Apparently one of the benefits of driving an electric vehicle is having everyone know that you drive an electric vehicle.

Well, that's a big selling point for most vehicles, electric or not. You want people to recognize your car. Why would anyone buy a BMW if people wouldn't recognize it?

I think this is going to be a problem for the Audi e-tron. It looks just like a Q3/Q5. I'm not sure I'd recognize it on the road.

> is this some sort of intentional thing to limit demand

A very interesting theory I had not heard. I love Honda. My jaw dropped when I saw that design. Maybe in 5 years :)

It's better than the current trend of throwing more facets into the bodywork "because we can".

Some facets can add strength to a panel, though so can the correct curves, but I'd agree too many are also a turnoff.

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