I don't like SUVs, neither do I like EVs. Imagine how I feel about current car design which, more and more, brings together the SUV and the EV with disasterous results. What brought this to my attention was driving home and being followed by a succession of blunt-fronted vehicles whose lights are positioned higher so really attract attention in the rear view mirror. All of these were SUVs, in both IC and EV versions and it made me think about current car design which now seems to favour tank-like themes with brick-like aerodynamics. And there is, undoubtedly, pressure from the manufacturers to force everyone to drive these tanks, whether they like it or not. Obviously, the SUV style has been around for quite some time, starting with the Range Rover's launch in 1970 (although earlier prototypes date back to 1951) but a segmented marketplace meant that the Range Rover and its imitators were a specific, initially niche part of the motor vehicle spectrum. But that is no longer the case as any walk around a supermarket car park will illustrate.
Much of today's design, with obvious exceptions (ie sports cars) picks up on the boxy bus style with higher floor-pans which are sold on driver-visibility but which hide the slab of rare earth that adds a huge amount in weight. Soon, we will have few, if any, cars as they were once known. Everything will be some sort of SUV, advertised with images of tearing across the Sahara, disguising the fact that they never venture off-road, other than to drive around the supermarket car park.
Ugly is everywhere.