> A Prius looks the way it does because it's designed to be aerodynamic

Nobody cares, people want conventionally attractive such as the Lyriq or the Ferrari 458 or the Mercedes Gullwing or the Ferrari GTO or the new Corvette C8.

The Prius might be aerodynamic and save you 30% energy but still you have the huge inconvenience that once you are done driving you have to hop off and look at it. Same for Teslas. That deplates your mental energy way more than 30%, leaving aside the small detail that mental energy is much more precious than chemical energy.

We have not come this far to depress ourselves with ugliness in the name of functionality, that line of thinking should be applied at the oil well or the battery design process, that is as far removed as possible from the consumer experience.