[twistedanimator]

I think the reason car companies besides Tesla make ugly electric/hybrid cars is because they really don't want you to buy them. I assume at this point, both car companies and the oil industry are intertwined to such a degree that it's not in their financial interest to disrupt the status quo.

My next car will hopefully be a Tesla, but I cannot afford the Model S no matter how much I'd like one.

[enraged_camel]

The exact same thing happened with Kodak. They invented the digital camera in the 70s, but refused to capitalize on it because they were too heavily invested in film cameras and had thousands of people all over the US employed in some capacity manufacturing them. The rest is history.