Electric vehicles have been given a hard time by the sector of the car community that wants to hear real engine sounds, but this hasn’t stopped many carmakers from pursuing an electric future. Luckily, there are a lot of EVs to get excited about as a result. However, some EVs aren’t doing much to beat the soulless, bad design allegations.
For the past decade or so, car enthusiasts have complained about EVs’ focus on futuristic, minimalist designs. Some EVs have approached this aesthetic better than others — and some EVs have even forgone this look altogether and have adapted sportier appearances. These cars, unfortunately, are just plain hideous.
What Makes a Car Ugly?
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As they always say, looks are subjective. The vehicles in this article are ones that I personally find unappealing, either due to their uninspired designs or jarring features. If you like them, that’s okay — that’s why so many car designs exist — so there’s something for everyone.
I spent some time looking at car lists online — not ugly car lists, just lists of past, present, and future EVs. That was enough to spot the ones I found to be shockingly ugly amongst the rest. Don’t agree? Let me know!
Editor’s Note: This list is meant to be fun. Design is subjective, and these are Olivia’s opinions, after all, so direct your angry tweets accordingly. If you’re getting heated, you’re missing the point. Laugh, disagree, or share your own ugly EV picks—but keep it light.
Renault Twizy
Image Credit: Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 FR / WikiCommons.
Continuously touted as a fun way to get around the city, the Twizy is a 17-horsepower quadricycle that’s quirky and tiny. While Renault wants you to know how easy the Twizy is to park, most people wouldn’t want to be seen parking this clunky, bulbous contraption.
The Twizy looks like an oversized bumper car on goofy tires that was built by NASA to explore the surface of the moon. Or maybe an enlarged mosquito that’s bloated with blood. The thing is just clunky and ugly.
GM Urban Electric
Image Credit: Environmental Protection Agency, Frank Lodge, Public Domain / WikiCommon.
General Motors showcased a prototype urban electric car at the First Symposium on Low Pollution Power Systems Development back in 1973. Not much is known about this tiny experimental EV, but it’s remained in the car community’s mind for all the wrong reasons.
The GM Urban Electric looks like a dinky golf cart that’s uncomfortably claustrophobic and full of unappealing colors on its plastic surfaces. Maybe we would have gotten EVs a lot sooner if they were made to look even remotely tolerable to the general public.
General Motors has continued to create new Urban Electric designs, but it’s honestly remained putrid throughout each decade. In fact, it’s even uglier some years than it was when it was first conceived as a tacky ’70s concept.
Cybertruck
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A six-year-old boy was given a grey crayon and told to draw a car, which was then used as the blueprint for the Tesla Cybertruck. I’m just kidding, but the Cybertruck’s awkward blend of unneeded angles, featureless surfaces, and clunky elements truly looks like a monstrosity that should have been kept in the coloring books.
It’s no surprise that such a poorly designed truck has suffered recall after recall for various pieces and parts not working as intended. There’s a reason this dumpster on wheels has seen insane depreciation over the years.
Tazzari Zeromax Line
By Georges Jansoone (JoJan), CC BY 3.0 / WikiCommons.
I don’t even know what to make of any of this. The Tazzari EV lineup is all unusually unattractive, looking extra chunky and soulless like children’s toys. The worst offender could be the Cubo, which looks like a storage unit on wheels that was designed by a Pixar animator. It’s clunky in all the wrong ways, like it’s about to get a recall before it backfires on your kid.
I am not sure when this type of bloated, cheap EV became a trend, but maybe it’s sort of like how baggy jeans are popular now, despite being super unflattering.
Jaguar Type 00
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When Jaguar announced its switch from sports cars to all-electric with a strange ad straight out of a Marie Claire editorial, the car community was already ready to roast just about anything the brand did. However, the Type 00 concept may have actually proven the haters right.
Spotted on the streets of Paris, the Type 00 looks like someone loaded into a game on the lowest resolution, and the car didn’t fully render yet. It’s almost like Jaguar compiled a list of all the stereotypical EV design criticisms and then ran with it, creating the most soulless, lifeless vehicle to hit the streets.
Mercedes-Benz Vision URBANETIC
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I’m genuinely terrified. The Vision URBANETIC looks like an egg from a sci-fi space movie that will eventually hatch into some type of parasitic demon that crawls into your body and poisons you from the inside. Its spore-like design and overly round beetle-ish shape just don’t sit well with me — and many agree.
This line of autonomous EVs is luckily just in its concept stage — I never want to see this on the road. However, Mercedes-Benz’s existing EVs are not that much better. The black and white EQS is beyond tacky.
Chevy Bolt
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This lame little thing is set to be revived later in 2025 for whatever reason. The selling point appears to be the possibly improved range, but is it truly worth buying an ugly, bland vehicle just for the sake of driving it super far? Remember, the further you drive this thing, the more people will see you in it.
The Chevy Bolt doesn’t have a stand-out ugly feature like the BMW’s nasty kidney grille or the Zeromax Cubo’s storage unit trunk, but that’s really the issue — it looks like the most lame, uninspired hatchback ever. That’s sort of the issue with EVs as a whole — sacrificing looks and style for the sake of claiming it charges quickly or drives far. Luckily, a lot of sporty EVs are on the way to drown out the collection of Chevy Bolts of the EV world.
Subaru Solterra
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While looking through all of the electric SUVs, it was tough to choose which one to include since they were all nearly identical. Most looked like the gas-guzzling version of whatever it was they were emulating, except with a single, thin LED strip of light on the grille instead of two headlights. Not sure who made this the official EV design, but at this point it’s a universal sign of the “future.”
However, the Subaru Solterra looks like another generic electric SUV with added flair — super ugly plastic cladding around the tires. This adds a cheap touch to an otherwise forgettable design, something that Subaru seems to have mastered for the past few decades.
Hyundai Ioniq 5
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Speaking of plastic, the Ioniq 5’s bold, all-black grille is sure to make off-roaders grimace. Hyundai’s attempt at making their vehicle look off-road ready comes off as just plain, cheap, and hideous.
I’ve noticed that a lot of Hyundai lovers feel the opposite and have even made Reddit posts dedicated to how beautiful the car’s design is. I agree more with this comment left on one of those posts claiming the design killed it: “They killed it if you love the stuck-on plastic bits from different part bins look, yes.”
Thank you, internet stranger.
A Terrible Day For EVs
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There’s no denying that EVs are the future. More and more carmakers are promising an electric lineup — some are even planning to turn completely electric in the future. While that’s inescapable as it is now, that doesn’t mean you have to settle for ugly electric vehicles. There are plenty of appealing EVs on the market and in the works. It’s just hard to ignore the ones that are impossibly hideous like these.
