Not a fan of the Tesla Model Y or Polestar 2 design? This is why some electric cars have ugly faces not even the carmakers like and how big changes to EV design could be coming

Did you know that you can buy a stick-on grille to ‘fix’ your Tesla? You know - because it’s an electric car and doesn’t need a grille, but the lack of said grille and the smooth featureless plastic in its place looks odd to many of us.

EVs are ushering in a new look that can be jarring to some eyes, but there’s a good reason why we find them strange and why electric vehicles have these faces,

Which may not again soon change back to be more beautiful.

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Of course the stick-on Tesla grille you can buy online isn’t an official Tesla genuine product and the company would never endorse such a thing, but that hasn’t stopped entrepreneurial folks from seeing a gap in the market. And these stick-on grilles actually look pretty good when glued to the front of a Model 3 - well, to my eyes anyway.

It’s not that I find the frog-like face of the Model 3 ugly. I quite like the futuristic look of Teslas and most other electric vehicles from the Hyundai Kona, Kia EV9 and MG4 to the Audi e-tron GT, Polestar 2 and Volvo EX30  - even Rivian with its goofy-robot-face design.

The thing is our brains are accustomed to seeing grilles because for the past 125 years cars have always had grilles and they’ve featured prominently, like mouths on faces. 

There was the Ford Model T with it’s tall tombstone-like radiator which really set the trend all the way through to the 1950s and ’60s grilles like the chrome-coated extravagant centrepieces such as on a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. The 1970s brought in muscle cars with their ‘power grilles’ such as on the Mustang and Camaro, meanwhile Rolls-Royce was going stately with something that look likes the facade of a mansion - on a car which would be parked in front of a mansion. 

The stick-on Tesla grille you can buy online isn’t an official Tesla genuine product and the company would never endorse such a thing, but that hasn’t stopped entrepreneurial folks from seeing a gap in the market.

The 1980s saw grilles get a reduction as Japanese small cars such as the Mazda 323 and Toyota Corolla set a minimalist look akin to vertical blinds. This look became dominant globally and lasted through to the 2000s when grilles made a huge comeback.

I’m going to credit Audi with models such as the 2005 A5 and its trapezoidal shaped plunging grille which was enormous for the time and a design a lot of brands seemingly copied, knowingly or not, right up until today.

We're now in a period I like to call 'Peak Grille' when the ‘mouths’ of cars have reached epic propositions and almost look ridiculous - BMW 7 series anybody?

Yes, there are exceptions to the grille rule - Porsche and other mid- and rear-engine sports cars that lack a radiator in the front are obvious ones. Meanwhile big American pick-up trucks have always gone huge when it comes to grilles.

Just as we’ve hit Peak Grille, the things we’ve come so used to seeing are being deleted entirely.

And just as we’ve hit Peak Grille, the things we’ve come so used to seeing are being deleted entirely. It’s a form of culture shock in a way and I think we’re all handling it very well.

So that’s the reason we find these electric faces odd or ugly, but why do EVs have to look like this? 

That’s easy to answer - there are two drivers for this.

The first is the lack of a combustion engine that needs to be cooled with a radiator to stop it from overheating. EVs still need cooling systems and radiators but not the huge ones needed by a petrol- or diesel-powered car.

A grille is designed to suck in air - it’s like a window opened in a high rise apartment on a windy day.

The second is aerodynamics. 

A grille is designed to suck in air - it’s like a window opened in a high rise apartment on a windy day. Good for cooling, bad for aerodynamics. In fact the main reason why residents of tall buildings are told to close their windows in high winds is because it can lead to structural failure. Yep, the apartments act like wind pockets and the force of air rushing into them collectively could rip the place apart. 

The wind resistance caused by a giant pocket like a grille on the front of an electric car would not destroy the car, but it would destroy the electric range of the car. The batteries would have to use a silly amount of their electricity just to overcome wind force. 

So the smooth frog-like face of a Tesla looks that way to ensure air flows around the front of the car with as little resistance as possible.

The Hyundai Kona has a big grille to cool the combustion engine, the other has a smooth rounded and closed face.

That’s why electric cars tend to have these bulbous smooth faces. 

Take the petrol-powered and electric version of the Hyundai Kona small SUV. One has a big grille to cool the combustion engine, the other has a smooth rounded and closed face.

The drag coefficient of the petrol Kona is 0.34 compared to 0.27 for the Kona Electric. In aerodynamics that difference is huge. So what would happen if the Kona Electric had the same frontal design and grille as the petrol version? 

“It would hamper electric range,” says Hyundai’s Senior Manager of Future Mobility, Scott Nargar.  

“It would be less efficient and it would take more to propel it through the air. All EVs will have very rounded surfaces to push the air to the side or under or over the vehicle in the most efficient way possible. It even comes down to the way the wiper blades are designed and the way the air kicks up over them.

The wind resistance caused by a giant pocket like a grille on the front of an electric car would not destroy the car, but it would destroy the electric range of the car.

“At the same time as you’re pushing air around the vehicle you have to be very careful though because EVs are a lot quieter and you don’t have a combustion engine to create noise. So any wind noise you’re creating around the door frame, the window, the bonnet - those noises are enhanced.

“So you have to make cars as efficient and as slippery as possible to reduce the amount of wind noise around every little surface.

“You’re working on a fine-edge blade - what’s in the best interest of aero and efficiency against making a car look beautiful. The guys in aerodynamics will always be pushing against the guys that have to market and sell the vehicle. So it’s always a push and shove: what is the target you’re trying to achieve for the vehicle against what is the market you’re trying to target?”

Polestar’s Deputy Chief Technical Officer and Head of UK R&D, Pete Allen, agrees with Nagar, saying that the smooth and grilleless face is necessary for achieving the most amount of range possible, but car companies have to design desirable objects too, and not just cars that look like slippery bars of soap.  

The smooth and grilleless face is necessary for achieving the most amount of range possible.

“If you want maximum range, then you have to have a very bulbous kind of front end, because most of the aero drag is coming from the front of the car,” Allen says. 

“So if you have very low drag, then you end up with a big, plain shape. Others do that, they take that approach. Then when it comes to dynamics, you can have very low rolling-resistance tyres. But then you have a car which is compromised in its design, and compromised in its vehicle dynamics."

Allen says that as bigger batteries start to offer better range, designers won’t be steered so forcibly by aerodynamic needs and be able to style cars to look more pleasing to the eye.

“So then the question is, how do you balance the range attributes with the desirability of the design and the driving dynamics?” he says.   

“Polestar is not about out-and-out maximum range.”

So it seems not even the carmakers are in love with the looks that their EVs need to have to go the distance - and this could lead to change as batteries get better.

In the meantime, there’s always those stick-on grilles…