[nickff]

A large part of the distinctive EV design is to increase their value for signalling. There has been at least one study where they compared Prius sales to Honda (Civic?) Hybrid sales by geographical area, and correlated it with politics. In more 'green' areas, the Priuses sold much better, whereas in other areas, both cars had similar sales. The take-away was to make the hybrids and EVs look different, to encourage conspicuous consumption.

There have been many very aerodynamic conventionally contoured gasoline powered cars, including one of my favorites, the Mazda MX-6 Mystere.

[ogre_codes]

> A large part of the distinctive EV design is to increase their value for signalling.

I've heard this too, but while Chevy and Nissan went the exotic route, every Tesla so far has been fairly normal looking. There were nice-things on them like the gull-wing doors and the handles on the Model S, but those were contained in a traditional design.

The CyberTruck will obviously break that mold, but I suspect that much of the look of the CyberTruck is to keep costs down and efficiency up. It is extremely difficult to make a traditional pickup truck efficient.

[nickff]

Tesla is conventionally configured, with a number of EV design cues, such as the door handles on the Model S, the lack of a real grill on any car, etc. Tesla also has the advantage that its logo is known to signify 'EV'.

[ogre_codes]

The original Tesla Model S had a grill. Also, their name and logo weren't known when the Model S was launched, it is now, but it wasn't when they launched. Tesla wanted their vehicles to be "Normal" looking. If there was any signaling going on, putting a token grill on a car which doesn't need one was signaling this is a normal car. It was only after Tesla had built up a strong enough brand and reputation that they removed the needless grill on the trunk.

The door handles are not an EV design cue at all. They are only on 2 Teslas and no other EVs. They are meant to look and feel luxurious and futuristic and would not be out-of-place on any higher end car. Like the gull-wing doors, I suspect they were done that way because Musk thought they would look cool.

[kevin_thibedeau]

The cybertruck is so that Musk can gallivant around Black Rock and upstage the other vehicles.

[throwaway0a5e]

Nissan is for the poors. Chevy is for hicks.

Or at least that's how the stereotypes go. Fancy styling didn't work for them for the same reason that Hyundai is having a hard time convincing people Genesis is actually a luxury brand. Buying something as a signal doesn't work very well when the signal is conflicting.