3 Things That Prove Car Buyers Don't Want EVs to Be Weird

Miami Herald

6 hours ago

The first mass-market electric vehicle (EV) was the Nissan LEAF, introduced in 2010, and it seems Nissan's goal was to separate the LEAF from gas-powered models by looking strange. The solid proboscis front fascia, the amorphous headlights that crept up to the A-pillars, the odd round rear haunches, and the protruding butt all made for an almost alien-like craft. And that was just the exterior. For more than a decade, automakers have tried to make electric vehicles stand out by making them… well, weird. Early EVs often looked and felt like they were from another planet. It was all part of a strategy: If you're going to drive the car of the future, shouldn't it look futuristic?
But a funny thing happened on the way to mass EV adoption: car buyers balked. Turns out, most people don't want to drive a pod on wheels or relearn how to operate a vehicle just because it's electric. What consumers really want are EVs that fit seamlessly into their lives, not ones that scream, "I'm different!" Here are three things that prove car buyers want EVs to be familiar, rather than looking like weird rolling spacecraft.
In the early EV days, standing out was the name of the game. It wasn't just the LEAF that worked too hard to be noticed. The BMW i3 was easily the brand's least fetching model with some of the worst bodywork we've ever laid eyes on. Sure, it looked like nothing else on the road, but that's not always a good thing. The original Toyota Prius-while not an EV but a hybrid pioneer-looked like Paul Bunyan was insulted by its environmental efforts and stepped on the nose of a once normal-looking subcompact sedan.
But as more buyers entered the EV market, especially mainstream consumers who weren't early adopters or tech nerds, it became clear that outlandish designs were a turnoff. Today, many of the best-selling EVs are the ones that look like regular cars. They prove you can ditch the gas without ditching good taste.
Take the Ford F-150 Lightning, for example. It looks nearly identical to the gas-powered F-150, the best-selling vehicle in America for decades. The typical bystander can't distinguish between the two, and that's no accident. Ford specifically chose to preserve the familiar shape and utility of the truck because it knows its customers don't want to drive a spaceship; they want to haul lumber, go camping, and tow boats, just like a gas truck owner.
The Hyundai Ioniq 6 may look sleek and futuristic, but the Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6-both of which sell well-strike a balance between distinctive and practical, without being too radical. Even Tesla, a brand known for innovation, has stuck with relatively minimalist, subdued exterior styling on its most successful models, the Model 3 and Model Y. They're clean and modern, yes, but not weird. Okay, so there's the Cybertruck, but we all know how that's going. Then there's the 3rd-generation Nissan LEAF, a conventional-looking modern crossover that shed all of its old weirdness. If that's not enough proof, consider the new crop of EVs: the Honda Prologue, the restyled Toyota bZ, the Chevy Blazer EV, the Hummer EV, and the Hyundai Ioniq 5. These are EVs meant to look like real cars, and that's the hot trend now.
If you think that some of the cabins in EVs were annoying and strange, you're not alone. One of the more frustrating trends in early EVs was the push to reinvent the wheel-literally and figuratively-when it came to controls. Carmakers, perhaps trying to emphasize that EVs were different, often went overboard with gimmicky interfaces. The first Nissan LEAF's bizarre interior looked like it came out of a '90s B sci-fi flick with its doughy white steering wheel and the orb-like shifter. It's the kind of stuff that makes the ovular 1996 Ford Taurus cabin look conventional.
It also seems that numerous EV manufacturers thought their vehicles should have a tablet-sized center screen that controlled everything from the radio to the air vents. How about when Tesla eliminated stalks and buttons altogether in favor of a touch-and-swipe interface? For a while, EV cabins felt more like iPads on wheels than traditional cars. The result for drivers was often frustration with the unfamiliarity and the steep learning curve. Minimalism isn't always a good thing, tantamount to eyeglass frames that clamp on the nose with no temples to grab. Even Tesla's controversial decision to remove traditional turn signal stalks in the updated Model S and Model X has drawn widespread criticism. Many drivers are simply not ready to rewire their muscle memory every time they drive.
Now, there appear to be more EVs that utilize physical controls, relatively standard shift knobs, and ergonomics that contribute to intuitive operation. The Chevy Blazer EV is one of them. It has big screens, yes, but switchgear to complement it. Hyundai and Kia have smartly kept a mix of physical and digital controls, allowing for a user experience that feels both modern and comfortable. The interior of the Honda Prologue is about as conventional as they get. If you were to get inside without knowing it's an EV, you'd never guess by looking at the dash, center stack, and center console. It has a normal-looking steering wheel, big stalk controls, and plenty of buttons and knobs for audio and climate. The lesson here is simple: car buyers might be open to new powertrains, but they don't want to relearn how to drive. Familiarity builds comfort, and comfort builds sales.
Another clue that buyers want familiarity in their EVs is the transition away from names that were meant to set EVs apart from gas models. The Mercedes-Benz EQS and the Volkswagen ID series stand out the most. Both naming conventions seemed to have backfired. The EQS sedan and SUV don't carry the same panache as the S-Class or GLS-Class, as much as the electric versions try to follow in the footsteps of their gas-powered stablemates. VW's ID series is just plain awkward, especially when paired with non-words like ID.Every1 and ID.2all.
Even Toyota misfired with its hard-to-remember bZ4X name. Once you could finally memorize the name, you realized you didn't know which letters were uppercase or lowercase. Nobody should have to think about that. Now, it's just called bZ, and Toyota might do away with that shortly. Smarter name choices by manufacturers included the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Kona Electric, and the Chevrolet Blazer EV, all recognized model names with electric labels attached to them. It's not just ditching what's strange, it's capitalizing on what has already worked.
In the EV race, it has taken only a little over a decade for automakers to figure out that departing too much from what's familiar is bad and that radical reinvention isn't always the way to win hearts or wallets. As EVs begin to feel more like the cars people already love-visually, ergonomically, and functionally-they're proof that making the kind of improvements people care about results in better sales. Of course, EV buyers don't want their vehicles to be boring. They just don't want them to be weird. Give them something familiar, with all the benefits of electric driving and none of the alienation, and they're on board. Onlookers might say, "That's electric?" because they can't tell the difference, and that just might be the best kind of compliment.
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