Good evening, everyone:

I was intrigued to hear on NPR this morning that on this day some 64 years ago the Ford Mustang made its debut – at the New York World ’s fair.

The unveiling was done by Henry Ford II himself at something called the “Wonder Rotunda. ” The company positioned the vehicle as a car that would be affordable to baby boomers. It worked: some 22,000 cars were ordered on the first day and over 400,000 were sold by the end of the year.  

And it has remained iconic ever since. Consider:

1967 (not so different)

1973

1986

2010

This resurfaces what I suspect is a highly annoying fixation on my part with the sense of possibility contained in a back-to-the-future orientation toward so many dimensions of contemporary life – housing, architecture, chair design, clothing.  The more advanced our design techniques become, the more intriguing it is to look in the rear-view mirror for inspiration.

So, it struck me as, if not sensible, at least interesting, to apply the same mental exercise to electric vehicle design. The idealist in me wonders whether a couple of the examples that follow below could help inspire Mary Barra and her team, Bill Ford and his, and even the relatively anonymous crew from  Chrysler/Fiat/Stellantis to think about designs that might rekindle public excitement about cars – particularly about electric vehicles.

Whenever one needs to inject design elegance into the conversation, one would be well-advised to start with the French. Sure enough, some small tweaks to this fifty-year-old  Citroen-SM might actually make it serviceable today. Little lumpy in the front, but that probably could be corrected with new battery technology:

The French may be icons of high-style, but the Italians seem more innovative and edgy. Don ’t know how else you explain the  1973 Lancia Stratos . Forget for a moment that you need an after-market, conveyer-belt-like device to get the driver into her seat:

The case seems reinforced by the 1970 Ferrari Modulo (in white) and the 1974 Lamborghini Countac (the silver one) – the latter of which carries the advantage of being able to hit 180 miles per hour:

The proof-points could go on and on. Indeed, if you want to go back 65 years, some relatively minor stream-lining might make the  1965 Alpha Romeo Zagoto just the thing that Mary Barra and Bill Ford need to create buzz for their 2028 line:

But, what I ’m  really waiting for is the EV version of the  1934 Duesenberg – shouldn ’t be a problem finding room for all the necessary electronics somewhere in all of this. Pretty cool to imagine going from 7 miles per gallon of gasoline to no gasoline whatsoever:

While we wait for full-bore retro design to take hold, though, I guess we should take some encouragement from EV ’s that look like this.

Back to the future indeed.

Rip

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