[bombcar]

I've seen an argument that the Prius was intentionally made "ugly/noticeable" because they knew the buyers would be interested in the technology AND want to be recognizable as such.

When hybrids are common, the styling reverted to more normal car-like.

[mrguyorama]

The first gen Prius just looked like an average car

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius_(XW10)