Well, it has a conventional shape, but it also looks distinct. I think trying to make an electric car that looks just like any other car would be a mistake- I came to this conclusion after looking at the Prius and the Insight.
See, the Insight was too weird and too much of a compromise (2 seater, stickshift), so even though it got 70MPG in the 90's, it never took off. Nor did the first generation Prius, which looks exactly like an ordinary car. Then the second generation comes along, which is much like an ordinary car but has a distinctive look that says "Look at me! I'm driving a Prius!" and it sold like hotcakes.
My conclusion is essentially that people were uninterested in hybrids, unless the hybrid was recognizable as such to act as a social signal, yet did not compromise on any of the functionality of a regular car. So in summary, the Tesla does these things- it has a distinctive look, enough to signal "Look at me! I drive a Tesla!" while still being very close to an ordinary car.
I was a fan of the original Insight... the real-world MPG was actually around 38 IIRC. There were a couple gas-only cars with better MPGs and fewer compromises (i.e. back seats).
> I think trying to make an electric car that looks just like any other car would be a mistake
Additionally: the Chevy Volt. The pre-production cars looked amazingly futuristic, and the production car looks like every other Chevy. The incredibly boring appearance is, honestly, one of the things that lowered my interest in the car.
With respect to sexy styling, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. I agree that Tesla threaded that needle almost perfectly.
You can look up real world MPG on a site like fuelly.com. It looks like the first gen Honda Insight is over 55 MPG on average. There aren't enough cars to get a great sample but they list about 75 cars between 2000-2006.
See, the Insight was too weird and too much of a compromise (2 seater, stickshift), so even though it got 70MPG in the 90's, it never took off. Nor did the first generation Prius, which looks exactly like an ordinary car. Then the second generation comes along, which is much like an ordinary car but has a distinctive look that says "Look at me! I'm driving a Prius!" and it sold like hotcakes.
My conclusion is essentially that people were uninterested in hybrids, unless the hybrid was recognizable as such to act as a social signal, yet did not compromise on any of the functionality of a regular car. So in summary, the Tesla does these things- it has a distinctive look, enough to signal "Look at me! I drive a Tesla!" while still being very close to an ordinary car.