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I don't know if it's just me, but I find most non Tesla electric cars to be incredibly ugly. If BMW made an electric 3 class sedan with > 350 miles of range for

• ricardobeat 7y ago
  Have you seen the Ioniq / Kona duo? They look quite traditional with a little flat-grille twist.
• d1zzy 7y ago
  I'm the opposite, I find Teslas to be (externally) ugly. In general I find any large sedan to be ugly. I don't get the sedan form factor, it seems to waste a lot of space. I've always owned hatchbacks because I like the way they look and they seem much more practical to me how I can bend the seats and carry a ton of stuff in the back (which I take advantage of at least once a month).
  • pmh 7y ago
    > how I can bend the seats and carry a ton of stuff in the back I don't think I've ever been in a sedan that doesn't have this feature, but you usually get a little more space out of a hatchback if the roof-line doesn't taper down.
    • javagram 7y ago
      A lot of newer hatchbacks seem to have a sharp taper to the roof and it really reduces the amount of space gained vs the sedan form factor. The Honda Fit and a few others are the exception but I assume the reason is that the SUV form factor has gobbled up most of the market for “hatchback with a lot of space for cargo”. E.g. Toyota discontinued the Prius V and is instead offering an electric RAV4.
  • jdhn 7y ago
    >I'm the opposite, I find Teslas to be (externally) ugly. I'm 100% with you. The X is one of the most awkward looking SUV's ever made, and the 3 looks awkward past the C pillar. In my opinion their best looking vehicle is the S because it looks correctly proportioned, and also because it has the semblance of a grille, even though it's just black plastic and doesn't actually function as a ICE car's grille.
    • Hamuko 7y ago
      Similar thoughts on the Model S. And I find the Model S facelift much worse than the original design due to the "look, it's not a grill design", where they don't have a grill, but they have an awkwardly shaped flat spot anyways. Porsche Panamera is a much better example of a grilleless design. As for the upcoming Roadster, that looks smashing. Too bad it's massively expensive.
  • adrr 7y ago
    I used to love small cars till I had kids. Strollers are large and rear facing car seats don’t work if front seat people are tall.
• mmmmmbop 7y ago
  All upcoming electric cars seem to follow that route. It just took them a while to catch up. The Audi e-tron and Mercedes EQC are recently released SUVs that are hardly distinguishable from their combustion engine counterparts. The upcoming BMW i4 is essentially an electric 4 class sedan with >350 miles of range.
• johnghanks 7y ago
  I wanted my next car to be electric and found the same thing. The good options at the time (Leaf and Bolt) are ugly, so I purchased a Model 3. That being said, if Honda releases their little wagon thing in NA, that might be my next EV. If not, a Y is in my future.
  • rootusrootus 7y ago
    I want to get a closer look at the Mach-E before I settle for a Y (already have a 3 as well). Saw the Mach-E in person at the auto show a couple weeks ago and it's quite good looking.
• cjhopman 7y ago
  > why not make a car that looks more like their already successful models? Most auto manufacturers are limited to making things that are profitable. I'm sure any one of them could have easily sold a million electric cars if they were willing to sell them at cost-$10,000 and burn up a couple 10s of billions of dollars.
• henrikschroder 7y ago
  The ID.3 still looks a bit too funky compared to regular VW models, but BMW, Audi, and Mercedes are just launching models that look a lot more like their regular lineup: https://www.caranddriver.com/bmw/i4 https://www.caranddriver.com/bmw/i4 https://www.caranddriver.com/audi/e-tron https://www.caranddriver.com/audi/e-tron https://www.caranddriver.com/mercedes-benz/eqc https://www.caranddriver.com/mercedes-benz/eqc And if you want something similar to a Model S, Porsche has got you covered with the Taycan: https://www.caranddriver.com/porsche/taycan https://www.caranddriver.com/porsche/taycan Traditional carmakers are obviously capable of making electric cars that look like any other of their cars, it's annoying that it took them this long to get on that train...
• CriticalCathed 7y ago
  The ID.3 looks like a hot hatchback. What's the problem?
  • Hamuko 7y ago
    ID.3 looks like a minivan rather than a hot hatch.
• sebasmurphy 7y ago
  Pretty sure it's a conscious decision not to cannibalize sales and to sell just enough to meet manufacturer emissions standards.
• Yhippa 7y ago
  > If BMW made an electric 3 class sedan with > 350 miles of range for a reasonable price Would they do this internationally? They are a luxury brand in America and moving downmarket doesn't seem to be their strategy or good for their brand.
• p1mrx 7y ago
  The Hyundai Kona Electric looks decent, and has an actual instrument panel instead of a weird iPad thing. You can't buy a Tesla with a standard charging port in the US, though I think Europe managed to solve that problem.
• freeone3000 7y ago
  Have you seen the BMW i4? It's pretty much exactly that.
• jillesvangurp 7y ago
  Most cars are ugly these days; Tesla is not an exception. Cars used to be beautiful and peak car design was in the 1950's and 1960's. I find it interesting that people are retrofitting a lot of old cars from that era with electric; looks like a lot of fun to drive in those things. I'd love to see some old designs from that era reproduced with electric. I'm not talking about monstrosities like BMWs mini (anything but mini) or VWs attempt to revive the beetle. They basically lost the essence of both designs and turned them into pompous monstrosities with a lot of plastic, leds, and ugly loud colors. The current mini especially is offensive to me compared to the original. Completely misses the point of the original in every possible way. For the North American market; what about some old school muscle cars, Cadillacs, etc. Those were awesome design classics. Their modern descendants are not even worth mentioning. It's not like a modern SUV is in any way efficient or practical. With EVs, aerodynamics matter a lot less because the fuel (i.e. electricity) is cheap. But it seems like designers these days insist on rubbing out all the little details in the original that made them so nice.
  • toephu2 7y ago
    > Most cars are ugly these days; What makes you think you can speak for the entire car driving population? This is just your opinion, no? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
• deleted 7y ago
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• speedgoose 7y ago
  When BMW designed the i3 about 10 years ago, one couldn't make a 3 class sedan with > 560 km at a reasonable price. So instead they took their low fuel consumption city car concept with a futuristic look and made it electric. They never planned to sell it a lot, it's a carbon fiber body on an aluminium frame with a rear-wheel engine block. It's not designed to be mass produced at a cheap cost, it's designed to make money from low numbers as a premium EV. They should have made more electric models since, but their different CEOs that succeeded were only looking at the current numbers. Hopefully for them, they will catch up. Many people dislike the look of the i3 but that's just a matter of tastes. Personally I think the tesla model S and model 3 are very boring looking cars. They look okay, but I much prefer the i3. In current cars models, The Renault Zoé looks very normal, the Volswagen Golf is a Golf, the Peugeot 208 looks exactly the same as a BEV or ICE, the Jaguar I-Pace looks like a ICE car too, the Audi Etron cannot look more normal, same for the Mercedes EQC.
• de_watcher 7y ago
  Tesla is ugly too. The only non-ugly electric car is Ioniq. New Audi/Mercedes are going to be sane too.
  • sgt 7y ago
    Ioniq is non-ugly? What are you smoking?
• Theodores 7y ago
  Good design can take a while to be accepted, particularly in automotive. Some Ford of Europe cars were radical enough to be deemed ugly when they were new, for example the Sierra and the Focus. In time people got used to them and the rest of the market borrowed the design principles. Some of the excesses of the trend setting designs got dropped, for example the huge double spoiler on the sport version of the Sierra, however, the aero shape gave fuel efficiencies important to the fleet buyer so that stayed. Nowadays all saloon cars have a little bit of Sierra 'jelly mould' in their design. With EV design the fake grille that Tesla started out with has been dropped. Tesla also don't do the funny blue lights 'because it is electric' styling that other marques sucker themselves for. Some people do not want an EV car that has retro, e.g. the grill, or the inane, e.g. the funny blue lights. A different future is sought, more along the lines of the second generation Nissan Leaf that is 'conventional' rather than the first, which had the silly blue lights styling in abundance. Now your suggestion of a BMW 3 series with the ICE replaced with batteries is a non-starter. Sure you can do what MINI have done and just shove batteries where the ICE bits would go, but it always feels retro-fitted. It would not be the 'ultimate driving machine' or offer the passenger luxury that EV is best at (3 series BMW's have miserable rear legroom because it is a driver's car). There would be this stupidly large bonnet for an ICE that did not exist. And you would not get your 350 miles range with ICE grade aero and weighty steel.
• rsync 7y ago
  "If BMW made an electric 3 class sedan with > 350 miles of range for a reasonable price, I think that would be hugely successful. Instead they made the i3." This. "I know this is very subjective, but why not make a car that looks more like their already successful models?" Carmakers: We don't want your electric car. We want your car, electric. I don't want to buy your iMobile or your eCar. I want a Volvo v90, but electric. I want a BMW 7-series, but electric. I don't want your Tron-mobile.
• tvararu 7y ago
  The VW E-Golf (since 2017) is exactly that, but doesn't have the best range.