Bad time to be a car lover

It is increasingly difficult for motorists to choose between ugly electric vehicles and ageing combustion-engine models

- Christopher Tan

Now is probably the worst time to be a car lover.

I am not talking about certificate of entitlement prices, as needlessly painful as they are. I am referring to the transition to electrification, which, like most transitions, spells uncertainty and disorientation.

The gloom begins with the homogenous design of electric vehicles (EVS), which tends to be bland, bulky and bulbous.

Gone are the imaginative definitions which evoke a stirring each time people see a beautifully crafted car.

These days, one electric car looks more or less like the next.

The design doldrums have largely to do with the extra 10 to 15cm taken up by the battery on the floor of an EV. This burden is most evident when a car is viewed from the back.

Sport utility vehicles (SUVs), because of their inherent massiveness, help to mask this.

But not entirely.

Take the Lexus RZ, for instance, which I feel has one of the most ungainly rear sections.

Mercedes' EQ SUV series of cars is not much better. In fact, it is difficult to distinguish one EQ from another at a glance.

And the Chinese manufacturers - which are leading the EV charge seem to be making clones of existing cars.

There are exceptions, of course. Electric cars which are easy on the eye include the Audi e-tron GT, Polestar 2, BMW i4 and Porsche Taycan.