When Do We Start Seeing Some Weird EV Designs?

FutureBoy

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When Do We Start Seeing Some Weird EV Designs?


Hey, do you remember ever hearing something about how new EV architectures would allow car designers to rethink traditional form factors and create cars packaged for maximum comfort/utility/looks? “Human-centered” designs that put people, not engines, gas tanks, transmissions or drivelines, first?

Or was the line, “We’re just gonna do a bunch of normal-ass crossovers with batteries”? It’s so hard to remember.

Regardless, that seems to be what we’re getting, just a bunch of absolutely generic looking crossovers with some lighting details to indicate that they don’t run on gas. Maybe this is fine.

img1.png


It could be that a lot of the more novel shapes that were being proposed when EVs started catching on as a concept around a decade ago were living-room-on-wheels boxes. Given that range is a huge part of the sales pitch for any modern EV, I can understand why nobody has pitched a box-shaped car so far, at least not as a personal car from a company that has a prayer of bringing something to market. But still, there has to be something!

img2.png


I remember talking to a designer years and years ago, maybe when the KL Cherokee came out about how the advent of modern lighting technology meant that headlights as we think of them weren’t strictly necessary, but that consumers didn’t like a headlight-less face. Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen anyone really step out with a novel design? Do people recoil in horror when they see something that doesn’t look like a CR-V? Are we just...afraid?

The old, and most-likely apocryphal, Henry Ford saying is, “If I’d have asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Basically, the idea is that people often need to be presented with something better, something they weren’t capable of imagining for themselves, before they realize it’s exactly what they needed. In a number of situations, that’s absolutely been the case. Are we waiting for some designer to show us something? Are we waiting for an exec to believe in it? Are we, culturally programmed to reject things that look different?

img3.png


I would think a Stout Scarab thing could work — lots of interior space, plenty of room for batteries and a fundamentally aerodynamic shape. Canoo is more or less poking around there, but even this thing isn’t drastically different from the vans of yore.

jpg1.jpg


The EQS is definitely strange looking, but it’s a strange looking sedan. The VW ID.Buzz is very cool, but it’s kind of an electric Type 2. We haven’t seen anything other than more or less traditional sedans, vans, hatchbacks and crossovers. Is there anything else? When are these brilliant designers gonna start stretching their legs to give us something we haven’t seen before?

img4.png



Rory Carroll
Jalopnik EIC '48 Willys CJ-2A, '84 Porsche 911, '15 VW GTI, '07 Lexus GX 470.
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akcoyote

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There are those who think the Cybertruck is a "weird design" or ugly. Fortunately for Tesla there are also those of us who like the design enough to reserve one.

Hopefully the production design of the CT will be close enough to the prototype that we won't want to cancel our reservations. :unsure:
 

DarinCT

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That author owns some iconic vehicles.

They've put engines and people everywhere in vehicles. I remember working on my buddies first generation Ford Econoline Van and thinking they put the engine there??!? My brother had a type 2 and I remember being afraid for him driving it. (The driver was as far forward as a human could be with some VW sheet metal in front of them.)

I'm not sure what kind of crazy innovation he seeks even if they ignored all safety requirements. In order to sell, it needs to fit two or four adults, forward facing experience, and have four tires. That's a lot of constraints right there.

I would love to see an electric 1960's Lincoln Continental, convertible of course. That wouldn't be innovative but it would be embracing the ride instead of the drive.
 

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We are.

The Arcimoto, Aptera, things like this delivery unit...
E1147C12-9A01-427D-B13E-41CA5FDD73E4.jpeg



Lotsa stuff happening. The nature of our safety laws have kept many designs from being considered... Hence Tesla's sedans but with nothing up front. They did put seats where the trunk would be on an ICE vehicle.

-Crissa
 


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I would love to see an electric 1960's Lincoln Continental, convertible of course. That wouldn't be innovative but it would be embracing the ride instead of the drive.
Back in the days of my misspent youth I had a 1970 Torino Cobra. It had the 429 SCJ engine and C-6 automatic transmission. I bought it from a Tennessee state trooper that had ordered it from the factory to run top end. It had a 140 MPH speedometer in it and it would hide the needle very quickly.
On the interstate it rode like it was on rails and would pass everything except a gas station.
If I had the money I would find a 70 Torino body and make an electric resto rod using Tesla running gear.
If it had the same specs as the CT I would expect that it would smoke most of todays muscle cars which is why I would want to build it.
It would be a sleeper of epic proportion.
 

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You had my interest, now you have my attention.

20210421_211953.png
 

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When Do We Start Seeing Some Weird EV Designs?


Hey, do you remember ever hearing something about how new EV architectures would allow car designers to rethink traditional form factors and create cars packaged for maximum comfort/utility/looks? “Human-centered” designs that put people, not engines, gas tanks, transmissions or drivelines, first?

Or was the line, “We’re just gonna do a bunch of normal-ass crossovers with batteries”? It’s so hard to remember.

Regardless, that seems to be what we’re getting, just a bunch of absolutely generic looking crossovers with some lighting details to indicate that they don’t run on gas. Maybe this is fine.

img1.png


It could be that a lot of the more novel shapes that were being proposed when EVs started catching on as a concept around a decade ago were living-room-on-wheels boxes. Given that range is a huge part of the sales pitch for any modern EV, I can understand why nobody has pitched a box-shaped car so far, at least not as a personal car from a company that has a prayer of bringing something to market. But still, there has to be something!

img2.png


I remember talking to a designer years and years ago, maybe when the KL Cherokee came out about how the advent of modern lighting technology meant that headlights as we think of them weren’t strictly necessary, but that consumers didn’t like a headlight-less face. Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen anyone really step out with a novel design? Do people recoil in horror when they see something that doesn’t look like a CR-V? Are we just...afraid?

The old, and most-likely apocryphal, Henry Ford saying is, “If I’d have asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Basically, the idea is that people often need to be presented with something better, something they weren’t capable of imagining for themselves, before they realize it’s exactly what they needed. In a number of situations, that’s absolutely been the case. Are we waiting for some designer to show us something? Are we waiting for an exec to believe in it? Are we, culturally programmed to reject things that look different?

img3.png


I would think a Stout Scarab thing could work — lots of interior space, plenty of room for batteries and a fundamentally aerodynamic shape. Canoo is more or less poking around there, but even this thing isn’t drastically different from the vans of yore.

jpg1.jpg


The EQS is definitely strange looking, but it’s a strange looking sedan. The VW ID.Buzz is very cool, but it’s kind of an electric Type 2. We haven’t seen anything other than more or less traditional sedans, vans, hatchbacks and crossovers. Is there anything else? When are these brilliant designers gonna start stretching their legs to give us something we haven’t seen before?

img4.png



Rory Carroll
Jalopnik EIC '48 Willys CJ-2A, '84 Porsche 911, '15 VW GTI, '07 Lexus GX 470.
Starting in the 1970's you'll see them
 


 




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