When EVs started, car companies said that flat “skateboard” EV models would lead to a redesign with a broader range of body styles. That didn’t happen, and many EVs on the road today look like squishy blobs. The head designer at Nissan says that the trend has already died down. This is why the industry is ready to move on from ugly EVs and how we got so many of them. At the Japan Mobility Show, Alfonso Albaisa, Senior Vice President of Global Design at Nissan, talked about the path and outlined it. To sum up, the reason there are so many EVs that look alike is that they are all trying to reduce aerodynamic drag to get more extended range. Some shapes are just more helpful than others. According to InviocePriving, Albaisa said, “EVs require certain types of aerodynamics.” “The risk on an EV is [that] even though we have a blank canvas, we have a skateboard, we can do a lot, but the wind tells us, no, we want the nose exactly here.” “So all of the cars we see today—the nose is moving up a little bit because we’re taking the air under the nose,” he explained. In this case, the will of the wind is being deliberately ignored. The wind wants it to go a certain distance—at least 300 or 400 miles—because the range matters. The first version of EVs looked like jelly beans because they were spotless and had a high body and a low nose. When asked if he thinks this trend will continue, Albaisa said that more than a dozen Nissan EVs are being made that don’t follow it. “We’re making about 13 or 14 of these now, some of which are a little bit smoother than the others, so I think people are already pushing back.” It’s also excellent, but the languages need to work better together. People are eager and want new things. Albaisa also said that the aggressive and hyper-angular style that has been popular in car design for more than ten years would soon become less popular. But he thinks that whatever model comes after, it will only last for a while because people’s attention spans are getting shorter. In advance, Albaisa thought the following big style in car design would only last for a while. Apathy and boredom are spreading faster because of this. Deep down, more so in some places than others, you are all from the US, which is the center of all the trouble in the world. Styles change. And I think it will speed up.
