Tesla has the ability to make "normal"-looking cars because the brand itself signals the owner is environmentally-conscious. The "traditional" automakers could probably get away with the same thing if they had exclusively-electric sub-brands (GM should bring back Saturn as an EV-exclusive brand, IMO).
Tesla may be "normal" looking where you come from but the are pretty easy to spot here because they are wider than pretty much every other car.
The Gen-1 Prius didn't look much different from any other "used bar of soap" compact that Toyota made. The Gen-2 did have a unique body style, but I put that down to aero requirements to hit fuel economy targets.
The Honda Insight looked even more goofy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Insight#Design
They were shown in 1997 and on the road in the US by 2001 or so.
The Prius seems to have been a much better car.
I drive a 2004 Prius and my friend recently bought a 2000 Insight.
The Insight is pretty much strictly a commuter car: it's laughably tiny, like a roadster without any power. But it's really fun, and gets outrageously good fuel economy despite how crude the hybrid system is relative to Toyota's.
The Prius on the other hand is an everyday vehicle that's spacious inside and small on the outside. Far better suited to be the only car someone owns.
Check out the rear fenders on the Honda clarity plug-in hybrid:
https://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/17120...
Re:Tesla Second Quarter 2018 Update
by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday August 01, 2018 @05:56PM
(#17667400)
> it seems likely that they'd uglify it somewhat and withhold the better design for a more expensive vehicle
Source? Many flashy design elements are expensive to fabricate.
I think they're still counting on the signaling. It's said that the Prius was bought by so many in large part because it looked so goofy, in that it didn't look like anything else, so everybody knew it was a Prius, which by proxy meant that you were driving green.
Tesla shook that up, but styling still remains something withheld for the maximum dollars. There are very few stylish cars at cheaper price points because they know that despite whatever features are there, people shop with their eyes predominately.
If they happen to land on a design that's too fetching for the price point they're targeting, it seems likely that they'd uglify it somewhat and withhold the better design for a more expensive vehicle that they may or may not plan to make.