I’m starting to wonder what happened to elegant design, and how the cars of today will be viewed 20, 30 or 40 years from now. The era of the electric car offered stylists the chance to be more creative, with no need for a big lump of an engine at the front, but so far they have largely failed to rise to the challenge. At least the three all-new cars dominating the news this week – the Nissan Juke, Hyundai Ioniq 3 and Mercedes C-Class Electric – are all distinctive, if that’s not damning them with faint praise. But I’m not sure any of them can be described as particularly elegant. It’s certainly not what Nissan was going for with the new Juke, and its origami/egg box surfacing that’s presumably causing production line managers and car photographers equal levels of headache. The first Juke was outlandish and striking, but this new one has stepped things up several notches. You won’t forget the first time one passes you on the road, that’s for sure, and brave design such as this is always welcome. It would have been easy to be conservative with a car as important as the electric Juke, but instead Nissan has gone for something radical and pioneering. While it’s fun for us, it remains to be seen how willingly buyers will embrace it. The new C-Class saloon is an assault on the senses in a different way, with that now familiar huge grille translating to the mid-sized model as well as it has on any of Mercedes’ other new cars. Maybe it’ll work better on the road than it does in pictures, or maybe I’m misjudging the wider public’s mood, but it’s all a bit in-your-face, and hard to find an angle of the car to be particularly fond of. The Ioniq 3 is, to me, the most instantly likeable of the three, and lands in an increasingly crowded area of the market. The sub-£25k small EV is going to be huge news this year, thanks to the VW ID. Polo (which you’ll see in all its glory next week), Cupra Raval, Skoda Epiq and Kia EV2 taking aim at the Renault 5. But the Hyundai has got a bit of style that could see it emerge as the surprise hit. It’s neat, looks good without being polarising and is intelligently packaged. At least all three are interesting, will spark conversation and have a design that relates to the brand they come from, which isn’t something you can say for all new cars these days.
