[mysterydip]

Ironically, I think your question is the reason it’s not done more often, or at least some brands make “very obvious” EV’s: because for some customers, they want people to know they’re different (and memorable) from the ICE vehicles.

[jerlam]

For the same reason, the Toyota Prius was uniquely styled and ugly - until all the early adopters moved to EVs and sales fell. The most recent model is intended for a mainstream audience and is conventionally styled like a hot hatch.

[davey48016]

I wonder if that was mostly true of early adopters, and more mainstream consumers would prefer more conventional designs.

[UebVar]

I think this is a meme in marketing departments, but not actually true.

For the longest time ICE car makers build cars that screamed "electric". They mostly where behind expectations. At that time the by far most successful EV brand was Tesla with the USP that their cars looked like cars, while the EV from the competition looked like video game asserts; the BMW EVs from that time where among the most ugly cars i have ever seen.

Now this has reversed. The current EVs from VW, Mercedes and BMW, Renault, Dacia, Fiat all look normal. The ordinary-looking BMW iX3 has a long waiting list since launch, VWs boring ID-cars are doing better than ever. Tesla has released the cybertruck that screams "electric" and is a sales disaster.

My personal conspiracy theory is that the ICE divisions wanted to prevent EVs cannibalizing their market and they pushed for ugliness or "differentiation".

People want cars to look like cars. This is tautologically true, but manufactures needed quite some time to figure that out.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

> Tesla has released the cybertruck that screams "electric" and is a sales disaster.

I agree that the cybertruck screams, but not that it has generic EV stylings.

[DangitBobby]

My cynical take for US auto manufacturers is they don't really want these cars to be successful.