Happened upon a review of Tesla v polestar recently and couldn’t help thinking how dated the Tesla looks !!

Just me ?

Tesla looks more pedestrain friendly (less nasty to be hit with) and has better visibility. Elegant and aero rather than butch heavy. I’ll take the Tesla.

which is which ?
(the white one looks amazingly wide/short in that pic)

A hint of Proton

They always looked retro to me even when first introduced, the American chrome some carry doesn’t help.

Looks were never its strong point.

A hint of Proton

Spot on. Since the model s first arrived Tesla’s have always looked, as you’d put it, dated. But I’d say more lacking detail, flare or fluster. The reason they look different is the proportions – the shortened bonnet. But the actual design is very safe and lacking interest. I think that’s kind of the point.

which is which ?

Same here. White one just looks massive and blue one like a door wedge to me.

thinking how dated the Tesla looks !!

To my eye they don’t look so much dated as cheap. Not in the sense of being cheap to buy but in the sense of being made by a company with limited resources –

I’d say more lacking detail, flare or fluster.

In the flesh they look a bit like a kit car to me. Or the low volume hand-built cars by companies like Bristol (or Aston Martin for a period) who could  do all the swoopy lines on the body work but have to get the door handles from the British Leyland parts bin.

They’re a kind of car that only really needed to look different to succeed though.

The Prius achieved this very well – there were other Hybrids out there but they were typically a Hybrid version of an existing model – there wasn’t really more than a badge to tell you it was a different kind of vehicle. With the Prius Toyota deliberately designed a car that didn’t look like other cars, it didn’t even really have a family resemblance to other Toyotas. They wanted a car that had different stuff inside to look like a different kind of vehicle on the outside. They made their car emblematic of the technology (in the same way that apple made their iPods emblematic of MP3 players)  and subsequently massively outsold their competitors.

So the Tesla doesnt need to look in-vogue, or stylish or desirable –  its just needs to look different. They’re the first car you imagine when you think of an electric car.  And I expect in reality it doesn’t actually need to sell in great numbers to do its job – I suspect patents are where the payback is rather than selling units

Tesla looks more pedestrain friendly

But then Volvo are class leaders in safety and the yanks are not. Even our 4yr old Volvo has a pedestrian airbag and a pop-up bonnet…but then that tech is probably obsolete for electric cars as there is no hard engine just beneath the bonnet waiting to crack your head…

Not dated in my eyes but frog eyed and fugly head on at the front (and I drive one!) As soon as you step a few degrees off dead centre I think the front end looks tremendous but my favourite angle is the side profile.

The reason they look so odd is the very low scuttle height and massive windscreen that goes almost to the drivers head. This is accentuated in white (the colour I went for as it was free..) as the windscreen looks black against it and it sticks out like a sore thumb.. BUT, it’s got one of the best views out of any car I’ve driven, helped by the uncluttered dash.

Also agreed re. the chrome looking ridiculous on the model 3. They’ve made it black on the facelift models.

I wish that manufacturers would make smaller cars. The Model 3 is the upper edge of acceptable to me. The polestar and the jag are just enormous. I live in a valley with narrow lanes and don’t understand why people buy big vehicles when you just end up reversing for miles to be able to squeeze past each other. Obviously there are more ICE SUVs doing this but I wish the EVs weren’t taking their styling tips from them.

What @Clover said. Electric cars could have been an opportunity to remove stupidly big cars from the roads in the name of efficiency.

Aye, the SUV trend is absolutely preposterous. It’s all (perceived) style over substance and it makes very little sense in an ICE car, even less so with an EV. A few people I know have ordered the Volvo xc40 electric thing and it’s not much bigger than my wife’s ID3 inside, the range is the same and it costs an absolute fortune.

Having driven an EV for 18 months and being an absolute convert it staggers me when I see a behemoth ICE X/Q/G/Range whatever wagon on a 71 plate that people still be the **** things. They’re absolutely hideous.. but theres a whole other thread for that so I’ll nip it in the bud there.

They’re not exactly cutting edge but perhaps they will age better because they’re not too out there. I feel a lot of modern cars are getting a bit too edgy and space age, I’m not convinced they’ll all age well.

Teslas look a bit bland to me, no styling, kind of similar to a mazda.they don’t look dated though.

The model 3 is the best looking of the teslas though.

What will look dated is a lot of the ev’s from some other manufacturers that deliberately have something wacky about their styling to indicate that they are an eV.

Doesn’t help that most of them are white, or at least they seem to be round here. They look better in black. But I do like the minimalist look of the interior.

I like the futuristic designs that are starting to appear. The new Hyundais look really cool.

Ioniq5 ftw!
If have one if I could afford it. Best looking hatch out there.
4wd with enough range to get the family to whistler and back for a day of skiing. Perfect.
Can’t afford one though 🙁 but it looks great 🙂

Geek alert- they remind me of Odo, the shapeshifter in Deep Space 9. He based his appearance on a particular race, but didn’t quite look exactly like them. They look like a car but There’s just something not right about the design.

I think teslas were designed form the outset to be anonymous, i.e. not look like any particular brand.

It’s what makes them look “different” and kinda androgynous so you aren’t entirely sure what it is.

It’s done on purpose. The polestar, however, is bang on trend.

Teslas look a bit bland to me, no styling

Agree.

Very American dull, aged and cheap looking.

Once people were convinced to care more about their car’s looks than function & utility, that’s when the problems began 😉

The polestar and the jag are just enormous. I live in a valley with narrow lanes and don’t understand why people buy big vehicles when you just end up reversing for miles to be able to squeeze past each other

looks can be a bit deceiving. a normal car is about 1.8m wide (golf is the example I went for). The polestar is 6cm wider (and only 1cm wider than a model 3). there are probably some roads that are exactly wide enough for a golf to pass whatever is coming the other way, but a polestar is not, but they’re probably relatively few. Even a range rover (source of much ridicule for size) is only 6″ wider than the golf.

Big is the new normal unfortunately.

Tesla styling certainly bland but against that Volvo I would pick that any day in fact I would pick any car against that Volvo, I am really liking the Audi EV styling.

I’ve just returned an early July 2019 black Tesla model 3 after 2+ years, agree the chrome trim spoiled it a little bit (now all black trim on newer models), also agree from some angles it looked a bit ugly, other angles it looked superb. Overall it is a great car if you like a sport saloon. The comfort of the front seats I found the best I’d ever experienced and all the techie screen stuff is at least a few years beyond the rest, sentry mode, Tesla Google sat nav, Netflix, games, TV, UI 15 inch tablet screen, full screen web browser etc. Sports car performance even in my basic model. Also the basic autopilot function is actually very good compared to other ADAS stuff I’ve experienced. My older model fell down on auto wipers and auto full beam stuff which the trad OEMs have long ago sorted, but newer China built Tesla model 3s are much better (my mate has a much newer one so I’ve experienced the improvements first hand). Must admit I’ve never liked certain coloured ones (blue and red?) they look a bit old man or rep/manager car. I liked the minimalist look inside, but understand why others might not.

Just bog standard yank design. When was the last time a good looking car came out of a US based design studio? 40 years ago? No idea but it’s not anytime recently.

Edit to add

Netflix, games, TV, UI 15 inch tablet screen, full screen web browser etc.

Why is this even in a car? That simply reinforces the private space utilising public resources. Frankly there’s no need for your car to be an infotainment system. That’s what your living room is for.

I was thinking about this recently.

What strikes me is how quickly Tesla have gone from being a small tech start-up to a household name care manufacturer. If you were in the market for an EV (as many of us will be over the next few years), it’s amazing that a company as young as Tesla are in the front runners.

However, you can’t just “skip” decades of organizational maturity without it being evident in the product(s). Saw some reviews of the “Plaid” tesla the other day: 0-60 in under 2 seconds….. but guess what? Chassis design, steering and (most importantly) brakes, just can’t handle going that fast.

I guess it’s the same as the styling – it just looks like it’s been picked out of a budget “car design” catalogue… because it has. Exception was their SUV thing with the gull-wing doors, but I;m not sure how many of those they’re selling

Teslas make Vectras look fresh. The SUV variant makes an X6 look passable.
Hideous cars!

Electric cars could have been an opportunity to remove stupidly big cars from the roads in the name of efficiency.

Not really, because everyone’s going on about range and big range needs big batteries. There are small EVs but they have low range.

I find Teslas very ugly, probably because they are American, and American car design is horribly conservative to European eyes. They are still struggling to leave the 90s behind in interior and exterior design IME.

Saw some reviews of the “Plaid” tesla the other day: 0-60 in under 2 seconds….. but guess what? Chassis design, steering and (most importantly) brakes, just can’t handle going that fast.

Because it easy to just dial up the power supplied by an electric motor to silly levels without losing fuel economy or interior space, but designing a car to actually be driven that fast is a completely different proposition. But it does the intended thing which is impress people, and convince them that EVs aren’t slow. When was the last time you heard a milk float joke?

I don’t like the Tesla styling across any of their models – they’re inoffensive and that’s about it.
BUT, I think the main reason for that is to maintain a very aerodynamic shape, so it’s forgivable.

Polestar 2 looks great to me, but probably takes more effort to push through the air.

Ioniq5 ftw!

This. The Ioniq 5’s look great.

Teslas generally look better from the rear 3/4 and side views. With the exception of the X, the front styling has always been a little off. But saying that – they’re nowhere near as bad as the new BMWs.

Because it easy to just dial up the power supplied by an electric motor to silly levels without losing fuel economy or interior space, but designing a car to actually be driven that fast is a completely different proposition. But it does the intended thing which is impress people, and convince them that EVs aren’t slow. When was the last time you heard a milk float joke?

Chris Harris was very complimentary about the Model 3 Performance when compared to a BMW M4 – high praise from a respected source.

I think Teslas always look better in real life. I think they generally seem to “take” a bad photo. have to say though I agree about the build quality comments, the shut lines and finish on some I’ve seen isn’t fabulous

Netflix, games, TV, UI 15 inch tablet screen, full screen web browser etc.

Why is this even in a car? That simply reinforces the private space utilising public resources. Frankly there’s no need for your car to be an infotainment system. That’s what your living room is for.

I use the public charger network pretty much every other day and can be sat for between 20mins and an hour on a 50kw rapid charger, so tbh it’s actually very useful to have a big screen with entertainment, certainly makes sitting charging time go past a bit quicker. Less so, I suppose, if you just home charge over night all the time.

I’d say bland rather than dated. If you ignore the Lotus-y Roadster, the first Tesla was the Model S and was launched 9 years ago so not a surprise it might look a bit dated now. Saying that, the styling hasn’t exactly moved on much since then and still bland. More widely though looking at what else is around and how fugly some cars now are, bland might be a better alternative.

the shut lines and finish on some I’ve seen isn’t fabulous

… is not the only offender – current Landrover products abound with these “unique” “hand crafted” “personalisation” “features”.

Honestly, if you’ve got one (LR product), don’t start looking because, from then on, all you’ll see is ill-fitting trim, misaligned coach-lines and wonky gaps.

sparksmcguff
Full Member

Just bog standard yank design. When was the last time a good looking car came out of a US based design studio?

There are a few decent looking American cars out at the moment (not sure where they were designed though): Corvette Stingray, Challenger Hellcat, Bronco, Venom F5 (not sure if that’s released yet)

Must admit Tesla’s do look a bit 2010ish somehow.