I’m starting to wonder what happened to elegant design, and how the cars of today will be viewed 20, 30 or 40 years from now.
The era of the electric car offered stylists the chance to be more creative, with no need for a big lump of an engine at the front, but so far they have largely failed to rise to the challenge.
At least the three all-new cars dominating the news this week – the Nissan Juke, Hyundai Ioniq 3 and Mercedes C-Class Electric – are all distinctive, if that’s not damning them with faint praise. But I’m not sure any of them can be described as particularly elegant.
It’s certainly not what Nissan was going for with the new Juke, and its origami/egg box surfacing that’s presumably causing production line managers and car photographers equal levels of headache.
The first Juke was outlandish and striking, but this new one has stepped things up several notches. You won’t forget the first time one passes you on the road, that’s for sure, and brave design such as this is always welcome. It would have been easy to be conservative with a car as important as the electric Juke, but instead Nissan has gone for something radical and pioneering. While it’s fun for us, it remains to be seen how willingly buyers will embrace it.
