Where’s the “spark” in electric car design?
Electric cars look just like their combustion brethren, with nary a closed-off grille and a few blue accents… Why?
Automobile design managers are very proficient at making excuses.
Whenever challenged about a less-than-successful design, they’ll tell you it was because of inept management, marketing input, cost-cutting, legislation… And that’s often true.
Up until recently, it wasn’t uncommon for design managers to indicate new powertrains as a gateway to a new, exciting phase in automobile design. Fast forward to 2020 and, almost a decade after Tesla’s breakthrough Model S, the automobile industry at large is finally pivoting towards mass-market electrification… But you could be forgiven for not noticing.
With a few exceptions, electric cars look just like their combustion brethren, with nary a closed-off grille and a few blue accents to “highlight” their different status.
So, what gives?
The automobile industry is perhaps the most tightly regulated of all, for a good reason: to keep people alive.
But I believe there’s more that’s holding designers back, mostly because technology evolves far more rapidly than…
