Automotive Form Follows Automotive Function
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This saying first appeared in the 3rd century BC in Greek. It didn’t appear in its current form in print until the 19th century, but in the meantime there were various written forms that expressed much the same thought. Toyota in 1997 is widely credited with coining the saying in the Hybrid arena with the Prius.
The Prius is still one ugly car. Not very politically correct, therefore apologies in advance if you own one, and our deepest sympathies to Toyota designers. If you don’t own one, or didn’t design the thing yourself, you probably agree with this opinion. Luckily they are slightly improving with each new revision. But assassinating the design of Toyota’s Prius is not the intention of this opinionated article.
On the contrary, because a decade later the unusual styling of the Prius is no longer a priority. Priorities are now set among financial crisis, CO2 emissions, saving the planet – and still have time to contribute to Starbucks global domination, which fits perfectly with the profile of a Prius perspective buyer. The ugly duckling has been sold over one million times; so there must be a lot of ‘Grande Caffè Latte’ drinkers around. Toyota is not even slightly concerned with the looks of the car affecting sales figures.
Even Honda tried to mimic the look of the Toyota Prius with its Insight – claims strongly rejected by Honda. Toyota and Honda want us to live with their design, like it or not, because form follows function. The shape is due to drag coefficiency (either that or the oil companies paid vehicle manufacturers to make Hybrids ugly). These vehicles highlight a trend emerging in function before form. Cars that place efficiency before all else are catching consumers by surprise. It seems looks is not an obstacle for sales. Turns out the market wants cars that make a statement and provide a certain level of exclusivity. Consumers are
ready to embrace something different not only to save fuel, but to make a bold statement.
The car of the future needs to be functional, aesthetic, safe, fuel-frugal, and affordable. Vehicle manufacturers and public policy often assume that efficient cars must be small, sluggish, unsafe, ugly, and costly. But integrative design and new technologies can achieve all desired car attributes without compromises. Ambitious automotive industries from the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will quicken the pace, leapfrogging over Western technology. And even countries without an automotive industry may choose to start a new generation of cars. Not ones based on steel, but computers with wheels, rather than cars with chips.
| 3rd Generation Toyota Prius Advert:
