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WHY do these vehicles always have to look so freaking dorky? This is one of the things that Tesla nailed. Their vehicles are beautiful, and look like first-cl

• mikestew 7y ago
  Their vehicles are beautiful Their vehicles are so bland-looking that a buddy of mine stated a few years ago that he'd never seen a Tesla. Even a few years ago, if you worked at Microsoft like he does, I guarantee you parked next to one some time this week, and saw at least one on your way to or from work today. To quote another MSFT friend: "buying a Tesla is like a rite of passage around here." I'll bet he remembers the singular time he saw that Ferrari 458 that parks in building 32, though. Personally, Ford Taurus, Tesla 3/S, same difference: nothing wrong with it, nothing memorable.
  • simonh 7y ago
    Most cars are bland looking for a reason though. Most VWs are pretty bland. They're maybe slightly at the more recognisable end of the spectrum, but only incrementally, because that's the look that works at mass market scale. So given that, why does their mainstream, bet the company EV have to look like something from a 90s SF action movie? The point about Teslas looking like other cars is that being an EV should be a normal, everyday thing. That's exactly the future that Tesla is aiming for. Whether a car is bland looking, weird looking or whatever should be entirely decoupled from whether it's an EV or not. They are orthogonal concerns. The weird look of this car is a worrying sign that VW does not get this, and is therefore missing the plot in a near future where EVs will be just cars.
• viklove 7y ago
  It looks like a Golf... It's a very classic design for VW.
  • izacus 7y ago
    More like the Polo, the cheapest and smallest of the VWs. For me it's also not an appealing look for such an expensive vehicle.
    • gambiting 7y ago
      Up is the smallest of Volkswagens actually, and this has the front from that. It's not a good looking vehicle by any measure.
      • tyfon 7y ago
        I have a 2015 e-up, it's very fun to drive and it has 210 nm of torque. My Toyota Avensis had 150 (at peak RPM). It's like driving a go-cart in the city and it charges 75% capacity in about 15 minutes on fast chargers (enough for about 100 km more). Personally I find it looks quite cool after I did a custom paint job. You can even get it in Honey Yellow [1] from the shop, but personally I think it's a bit gaudy.. My daughters really wanted that colour but I had to nix it! [1] https://www.greencarguide.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Volkswagen-e-up-000-low-res.jpeg https://www.greencarguide.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/V...
        • gambiting 7y ago
          Oh, I don't mean to say that the Up isn't a good car, I know they are pretty practical and fun to drive for something that small(although according to Which? magazine it's consistently at the bottom of reliability charts, so take that as you will), just that the front of the Up glued onto a golf-size car doesn't look that good.
          • tyfon 7y ago
            I guess the reliability is for the fossil up :) But beauty is as always in the eye of the beerholder. I don't really fancy how the back of the e-up looks either, but I didn't mind the ID3 all that much.
• bproven 7y ago
  yeah, I don't get it either. Although this one is not that bad. (tinfoil hat) Seems like they want this to fail to keep ICE and all the supporting industries alive for more $$. After all service/parts is where the real money is...
  • nosrednehnai 7y ago
    I don't think your tinfoil hat theory is so far-fetched. Like every other car company before Tesla, they've optimized for ICE cars. From their perspective, the ideal scenario would be that the electric car trend dies out as a fad, leaving their core business (ICE cars) unaffected.
    • dsfyu404ed 7y ago
      It's pretty far fetched. There's money in service but not for VW or any other OEM. The dealers make money on service. The OEM makes money on cars and financing. It wouldn't surprise me if subtracting warranty from parts sales resulted in a net negative for many models. I'm painting with a broad brush here but that's the gist of it. Going all EVs would simplify a heck of a lot of things for the OEMs.
  • turbinerneiter 7y ago
    Oooooooooooor, they are just good engineers and shape the car around the drive train. The id3 is spacious like a big car in the footprint of a small car. No engine means you can move the cabin forward, hatchback means extra trunk space and headspace for the second row. Everyone in Europe is happy about getting more space in a smaller car. And this compact car shape is common here as well. The car is completely normal and good looking. Limousines and SUV are not the only valid shapes for cars.
  • refurb 7y ago
    I think Tesla has shown that if the current car makers don't get on the electric bandwagon fast enough, they are going to be left behind.
  • clouddrover 7y ago
• kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
  Aerodynamics dictates some form of Kammback. Tesla is leaving potential efficiency gains on the table by going with a "normal" shape.
  • r00fus 7y ago
    Tesla has some of the best drag coefficients in the industry (0.23 cd for Model3). Only some specialized versions of other vehicles get better than that.
    • dsfyu404ed 7y ago
      The model 3 is a kammback. It's just much more gradual than a Prius because they have much more length to work with. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kammback https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kammback
      • r00fus 7y ago
        The original comment metioned Tesla could do better than a 0.23 cd. I'm just wondering how that's possible.
        • dsfyu404ed 7y ago
          More rounded front and more boat-tail rear. Small wheels and tires would help too. It would wind up looking 90s up front and 2000s hyper-miler out back. It would certainly not look how we expect a 2019 luxury car to look. When you're courting new car buyers with good credit you can't build something that's all function and no form.
• rb808 7y ago
  I agree a normal looking car is better, but the Audi e-tron is very pretty.
  • viburnum 7y ago
    The Honda E is quirky without being try hard. Kind of like a Nissan Figaro.
• RobertRoberts 7y ago
  I think this is pretty subjective. My preferences have changed over the years, and I think this is a pretty cool design. Call me super dork I guess...
  • loceng 7y ago
    Indeed, what people like is strongly tied to personality.
• jonplackett 7y ago
  Completely agree. I remember reading Musk had a fights with the original Tesla designer because he wanted to make something weird and funky and ended up firing him. Just make it normal looking, but you know, the good normal.
• unlinked_dll 7y ago
  >WHY do these vehicles always have to look so freaking dorky? Someone once explained to me that it was because EVs try and minimize the weight of the chassis to extend the range of the vehicle, and it's difficult to get more traditional curvatures in the chassis while doing that and balancing with safety/cost. No idea how accurate that is.
  • muzika 7y ago
    This can’t be true, because most of the dorky features of these cars are definitely not affecting structure/auerodymanics etc.
    • petre 7y ago
      They affect sales bigtime, nevetheless.
  • petre 7y ago
    Excuses. Build it out of carbon fiber, aluminium or a steel chasis and plastic panels like the Smart. The Smart looks like crap too but it's not like one cannot mold plastic to look good. Just pay some Italian designers to do it.
• lukifer 7y ago
  I drive a Gen-1 Volt (which I love), and it's as sporty and sedan-y as a car can get while still being a hatchback. There's no reason that a non-dorky design can't be made in this form factor.
• dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  >This, the "ID-3" looks like a prius The Pruis is highly optimized for minimal aerodynamic drag. It's no coincidence the wound up with roughly the same shape. The Model 3 is a similar shape but more sleek because they have more length to work with.
• Ninn 7y ago
  > This is one of the things that Tesla nailed. And > Model 3 - Bug Edition. Choose one...
• vkou 7y ago
  > WHY do these vehicles always have to look so freaking dorky? Because when the first Prius launched, it looked like a normal car. Nobody wanted to buy one. The second-generation Prius had an incredibly conspicuous shape, and it sold like hotcakes.
  • JohnBooty 7y ago
    It's true that companies generally style hybrid/electric vehicles to look a little weird, but.... Because when the first Prius launched, it looked like a normal car. It was rather ugly in most people's opinions. From some angles it looks more bizarre than the subsequent Priuses. See the various generations here: https://global.toyota/en/prius20th/evolution/ https://global.toyota/en/prius20th/evolution/ Seriously, it was a very odd-looking car: http://www.imcdb.org/i044705.jpg http://www.imcdb.org/i044705.jpg To the extent that it looked like "a normal car", it looked like an absolute bargain-basment Toyota along the lines of a Tercel or something. Different is one thing; different and ugly is quite another. Nobody wanted to buy one. It was only sold "in limited numbers" in the US. According to Toyota, the company was only "breaking even" on each one sold. They weren't really pushing them either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius#First_generation_(XW10;_1997%E2%80%932003) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius#First_generation_... The second-generation Prius had an incredibly conspicuous shape, and it sold like hotcakes. Convenient narrative, but I'd say it's completely false. At best, it's only a small part of the story. It's not as if the second-gen was a simple rebadge of the first-gen with weirder looks. First-gen was a funky sedan of limited utility and performance. Additionally the concept of a hybrid vehicle was bizarre and foreign at the time. The second-gen was a massive improvement in every way. Significant and objective improvements in power, range, comfort, capacity, and so on. Furthermore the hatchback/fastback body style is of much greater convenience and utility. As far as looks... while it was certainly unconventionial and perhaps not beautiful, the second-gen model looked more "futuristic family car" and less "weird ultra-budget sedan" like the first one.
• lucideer 7y ago
  As others here have mentioned, this is obviously subjective. I could be wrong but I think beyond that it's also highly regional/cultural. Teslas look awful to me; they remind me of so many other examples of recent bland US car design: particularly Ford, and with a few hints of the sort of 90s-mazda-esque Corvettes of the past 10-15 years. All very popular aesthetically but to me seem a bit lacking in anything unusual or novel. I would say the same of a fair amount of Japanese car design. European car design (particularly French, Italian) is often ugly, usually novel, sometimes beautiful. Germans are a bit more conservative (especially VW), but they definitely have their moments. I am European so I may simply be missing the nuance of non-European design.
  • jliptzin 7y ago
    What car looks good to you?
    • deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    • nextos 7y ago
      While I love what Tesla is doing, I also think their external design is their least appealing part. I think there are many fine examples of great car designs. Recently, I can think of Mini, Fiat 500, Alfa 147, Alfa MiTo, Golf Mk I & II, Lamborghini Gallardo, BMW 3 series E21-E46...
      • bumblebee4 7y ago
        Doesn't the Tesla 3 try too much to look like a Porsche?
    • lucideer 7y ago
      The two current sibling comments are pretty on the mark. Alfas, Land Rovers. I quite like some of the BMWs. Fiat and Citroen are, on the more reasonably priced end of the spectrum, doing innovative/interesting things that are at the very least not bland.
• AgloeDreams 7y ago
  I mean, on the other hand, it is kinda like the iphone effect, Apple realized that new colors sell because people want others to know their choices and that they have the new thing. People who want an electric car so far have shown that they want that fact to be obvious. That said, have you seen the new Honda city car? It's beautiful.
  • brailsafe 7y ago
    Looks like kind of a standard boring Honda to me. What sets it apart for you?
    • petre 7y ago
      More like a Golf 1, which was a dorky but quite functional car. I prefer that look to many of the modern small windows, no windows cars with lots of dead angles. Like the new Mazda 3 or the Toyota CH-R. We already have a Civic and I hate driving it in around town because of the low visibility.
      • brailsafe 7y ago
        This confused the hell out of me, because I'm quite fond of Golfs and agree. Turns out I had to append the word "electric" to my search, otherwise I got a very Civic-looking car.
    • AgloeDreams 7y ago
      My apologies, that car was called the Honda e
  • admax88q 7y ago
    > People who want an electric car so far... The so far is key. BMW said the same when they launches the i3, that EV owners want to make a "statement." But I think that's actually holding EVs back. I don't want to make a statement with my car (or phone for that matter). Always making EVs look exotic says that this product is only for enthusiast. I want the android of EVs not the iPhone.
• viburnum 7y ago
  They do try to make them weird-looking. The BMW i3 was bonkers. All I want is a regular Golf or Golf wagon that can go 160 miles or so on a charge. It’s not just electrics. Honda used to make sleek cars but now they have weird shapes and curves for no reason. Comes off as desperate.
• agumonkey 7y ago
  I can't say but I think a lot of people want cars like the id3.
• CalChris 7y ago
  I get a sense that the auto executives at these non EV companies do not want their EVs to succeed. Of course that started with the EV1 but the CEO of Fiat begged customers not to buy the 500e.
• gok 7y ago
  In the mind of a lot of traditional carmakers, the main reason someone might buy an EV is to signal their environmental bona fides. So they make them look purposely weird.
• WhompingWindows 7y ago
  Aerodynamics is a big design factor for EVs, as lower coefficient of drag leads to higher efficiency and less battery capacity needed. Tesla clearly has much more aesthetically pleasing aerodynamic cars better than others like Chevy and Nissan...in fact those cars are both uglier and less aerodynamic. I am not a fanboy, but Tesla simply has the best EVs on the market.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• novok 7y ago
  I like the interiors of teslas, but the front of the model 3 looks fairly dorky to me, and the back looks like any other corolla. I don't think tesla is free from the dork factor.
• clouddrover 7y ago
  > WHY do these vehicles always have to look so freaking dorky? The ID.3 looks like a nice hatchback to me. Here's Volkswagen's ad for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPjvgXWA78E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPjvgXWA78E The augmented reality heads up display looks interesting.
• harshaw 7y ago
  I have the hybrid Pacifica and it is a great car. The transmission and electric drive is amazing. I think the car sells itself, as I suspect the ID-3 will. But I don't think the ID-3 will be available in the US :(
• DamnInteresting 7y ago
  My sense is that automakers believe that low-emissions cars will not sell well unless people can acquire them as a means of signalling virtue and wealth. In other words, unless the car is instantly identifiable as a fancy new EV, a large subset of potential buyers will lack interest. I suspect this is mostly myth propped up by apocryphal assertions that Prius sold well due to its distinct look. But I am just a long-time curious observer, not an expert.
  • Smoosh 7y ago
    It's interesting then, that the new Peugeot 208 range has identical bodywork across the range regardless of whether they have electric, petrol or diesel drivetrains. Personally, I'm disappointed when a car isn't designed from scratch to take full advantage of the packaging options of an electric drivetrain, but see this as a reasonable compromise for manufacturers at the present time.
  • kalleboo 7y ago
    > I suspect this is mostly myth propped up by apocryphal assertions that Prius sold well due to its distinct look What I read was that the sales of Toyota's hybrid versions of their "normal-looking cars" (Camry Hybrid, etc) were disappointing in comparison to the Prius (especially if the theory is that people were avoiding the Prius due to design and would prefer a less-radical car that still got great gas mileage). I don't know if there's any truth to that.
  • davidgould 7y ago
    > automakers believe that low-emissions cars will not sell well unless people can acquire them as a means of signalling virtue and wealth That's totally why I bought my sweet sexy Spark EV.
  • tomp 7y ago
    UK might be taking an interesting approach, they're thinking of making different registration plates (green) for EV cars...
• Alex3917 7y ago
  > WHY do these vehicles always have to look so freaking dorky? Because they're targeting early adopters who want to buy a car that looks like a science project. Once they move onto targeting early mainstream, it will start looking more like other cars. Just look at how the Prius changed its look over time.
  • davidgould 7y ago
    That's totally why I got my first Spark EV in 2013. It has a tiny badge that says EV so you can tell I care about saving the earth. Although to be fair, the otherwise identical gas Spark looks dorky too.
• rad_gruchalski 7y ago
  > This is one of the things that Tesla nailed. Their vehicles are beautiful, and look like first-class products. Beauty is relative. I find the look of Tesla “dorky”, especially the piggy nose of the Model 3. However, I’d not defend a design of id.3.
• dmix 7y ago
  It doesn't look like a Prius at all, looks much nicer in the videos than in pictures. The non-white models with typical rims could easily be mistaken for a hatchback Golf.
• voisin 7y ago
  Good quote I’ve heard on this topic: “we don’t want your electric car; we want your car, electric.” Just give us all of your normal lineup with an electric option and stop trying to create a different looking vehicle just because it is electric. It is like having a gas and diesel option!