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Would you give way to this car?
The Google car is a prime example of cute and cute car design.
Are the cuddly cars coming now?
Photo: Waymo
The streets are often congested with aggression, even when the traffic is flowing: Most cars look as if they are not rolling into the office, daycare center or customer - but into battle.
Pinched headlight eyes, torn radiator mouths, jagged sheet metal armor characterize many car models.
Where is this going to lead?
Paolo Tumminelli, Professor of Design Concepts at the TH Köln, is surprisingly relaxed.
For him, aggressive car design has come to an end.
His reasoning: »There is simply no more space for more joints and folds.
It can only be dismantled visually. "
Tumminelli has observed that numerous electric cars are already showing what the design turnaround could look like.
Together with the Goodbrands Institute, he researched the perception of vehicle fronts.
“Attention Aggromobile” is the name of the study that was published last year.
One key to stylistic de-escalation is therefore the radiator grille, which in electric cars is either much smaller or disappears entirely.
Which is also due to the fact that it is no longer technically necessary.
Electric car manufacturer Tesla does not use this central design element of combustion models, true to the motto "form follows function".
Bonds of manga cartoon characters
The last time Renault demonstrated the difference in the effect of a non-existent cooling air gap at the presentation of the grille-free Renault 5 prototype.
"The car is still sporty and muscular," says Tumminelli.
"But: this car doesn't want to eat me anymore."
A closed radiator grille is one thing, the other is friendly looking headlight eyes, ideally spherical and slightly oversized - like with Japanese manga comic characters.
If the edges of the body are then removed, cars lose their horror.
Electric vehicles like the Honda e, the Fiat 500 e, the “Elektro-Isetta” from the Swiss company Microlino or the Swedish electric model Uniti One look smooth.
“The cars are appealing at first sight.
They are fundamentally different from today's aggressive automobile face, ”says Tumminelli.
E-cars should gain sympathy
The fact that new electric models in particular look so trusting is also due to the fact that manufacturers have to arouse sympathy for a technology that they have tended to reject for years.
The e-car skepticism was fueled by fear of suddenly being stranded without electricity, sometimes even by rumors of exploding batteries.
This negative connotation must now be eliminated, says Tumminelli: "So the designers try to give the car a face that exudes serenity and conveys positive values."
To see how this can be achieved, it is sufficient to take a look at the past.
For decades, cars have been designed to be elegant, harmonious, sleek - in short: tasteful.
Classic cars like the VW Beetle, Mazda's first mass-produced R360, but also sports cars like the Porsche 911 or the Lamborghini Miura almost smiled.
The dark and intimidatingly styled aggro car only began to spread in the 1990s.
And it was only around ten years ago that the "get-there-here-I-come" look really got through.
The designers found themselves in a kind of competition for the most aggressive look.
Each new model had even more joints and folds.
Body panels folded into mountains of metal.
In addition, the manufacturers underlined the intimidating effect with word creations such as "Tiger Nose" (Kia) or "Diablo grill" (Lexus).
You rarely see friendly cars
There were only a few sympathetic-looking cars: Citroën C3 Pluriel, Fiat Panda, Kia Rio or Mini, for example.
In the grim-looking mainstream car, they appeared like friendly dabs - and made it all the more clear how angular and humorless the design reality had become.
In this environment in 2005, an automotive bizarre from a commercial for frozen peas caused even more sensation.
A London special effects company had assembled the bright green cuddle ball, and many hearts still fly to it on social networks today.
The car was never approved for road traffic, fans report on the Internet.
Sometimes cute also means vulnerable, as the spot shows.
Most of the cars still seem aggressive to this day.
It would be too early to proclaim a new cuteness in automotive design - also because customers continue to demand SUVs with daring features.
In 2020, every third car buyer opted for a vehicle of this type.
Some of the new electric cars also carry prestige, swank and potency: Who has the largest - in this case technically completely useless - front grille?
New technology, new look
Skoda's electric SUV Enyaq IV is just as involved in this competition as the upcoming BMW i4, which competes as an electric car with a grotesque, completely meaningless giant BMW kidney.
And Porsche gave the e-athlete Taycan headlights in the form of vampire teeth.
It has little to do with a nice, personable appearance.
But it is also clear that a friendly-looking Porsche would have a harder time finding buyers.
"Cute Cars" from new companies such as Uniti or Microlino do not yet have a clear target group.
And they are also not obliged to any classic design.
In addition, there is the space advantage of an electric car: an electric drive only requires around a third of the mechanical components of a combustion engine.
For example, almost 70 percent of the space in electric vehicles could be redesigned, says design professor Tumminelli: “Either you use this space advantage to give the vehicle occupants more space.
Or the car can become smaller overall - and all road users benefit from it. "
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