does auto design matter for green cars

[doug]

Is it enough to be 'green,' or does auto design matter? - SmartPlanet.com

Follow the link for a short clip is from the recent AlwaysOn GoingGreen Conference. The participants should be familiar to most of those that follow EVs. Hopefully more from this conference is available online.

At the AlwaysOn GoingGreen Conference in Sausalito, Calif., automakers and venture capitalists talk about whether sustainable design is enough to attract customers to their cars. The executives cite recent success stories, which include the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic. The panel is moderated by Frank Markus, Editor, Motor Trends Magazine. Panelists include: Kevin Czinger, CEO of Coda Automotive; Paul Wilbur, CEO of Aptera; Trae Vassallo, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; and JB Straubel, CTO of Tesla Motors.

Kevin Czinger understandably sounds a bit defensive at the end.

 

[mpt]

I fall into the split camp; like current design, there are cars that favour and sell lifesyles and cars that don't, e.g. Prius, Corvette, Aptera, Ferrari, old Honda Insight versus new Honda Insight, most Toyota bland models and everything from Korea at the moment.

I think that green car design should be divorced from overall car design except where they're targeting people that wish to make a green statement, e.g. Prius, Aptera.

I think the Tesla models actually fall outside of the green lifestyle (sadly); the Roadster is more Lotus Elise than ultra green to most people. One observer commented that the Roadster shouldn't have a petrol/gas cap "How will people know it's electric?" she asked. How do ordinary folk know the Roadster is electric?

 

[TEG]

...How do ordinary folk know the Roadster is electric?...

A few owners have taken extra steps to make it more apparent.

 

[vfx]

It's really there.

But I do wanat to redo it in the TESLA font.

 

[Lloyd]

Check out this new design

https://www.facebook.com/michelle.tangey/videos/768491296528174/

 

[Larry93428]

Lloyd, that is great! Thank you for sharing it.
~Larry

 

[muleferg]

All my friends that know I have a Tesla send me that. I Fart car video. :biggrin:

 

[S'toon]

I get a 404 error with the link on the OP.

 

[wdolson]

I get a 404 error with the link on the OP.

The thread started in September 2009 and was resurrected yesterday. I would like to see the original video, but it's no longer available.

 

[aja2460]

Old thread... New thread...
Design matters.

 

[Cebe]

This article: The Zombie-mobile — Medium spends a bit of time on the topic of automotive design and where we've gotten to (at least for the mass public.)

Some quotes:

"In order to give the illusion of differentiation, manufacturers add meaningless character lines to the crossovers rather than risk non-conformity."

"Today too much flair can hurt sales because the brand-hyptnotized public are afraid to embrace risky deviations from the norm. The pressure on car companies is not for innovation, but for conformity. The result is not branding, but rather blanding."

“People with taste are picky. The only way to make money is by satisfying those who can’t discern quality.”

The way I look at it - design matters, I agree, but if you're going mass market, you may have to keep toning it down and save your design queues for small things (e.g., the rear doors.)

 

[Lloyd]

Here is a new link to the same video removed.

 

[doug]

The thread started in September 2009 and was resurrected yesterday. I would like to see the original video, but it's no longer available.

Yeah, unfortunate link rot. It was an interesting video and would be cool to see again today from a historical perspective.

It's worth pointing out that besides Tesla, all the other car companies represented on that panel failed. (Fisker Automotive was effectively represented by the person from Kleiner, the main VC firm supporting them.) What was amusing was that they went down the line asking if design (aesthetics, actually) mattered, and of course Tesla, Fisker, and Aptera had cars that looked futuristic, sleek, or distinctive. But then they get to the guy from Coda and he seemed so nervous and defensive, because there's no getting around that their car looked like an early '90s Nissan Sentra.

 

[doug]

Check out this new design

https://www.facebook.com/michelle.tangey/videos/768491296528174/

Everything old is new again.