The website, Chasing Cars, came up with the great idea of reimagining some of the most popular modern electric vehicles as if they were designed in the 1960s. That era is considered by many as the glory days of automotive design, spawning vehicles like the Ford Mustang, the Chevrolet Corvette, and the Jaguar E-Type.
So they went to work designing these renderings based on the automaker’s design language during the 1960’s. If the modern automaker wasn’t established in the 60s – (Tesla, Rimac, Rivian) they used vehicles from that era that evoke the spirit of the modern EV they are reimagining.
The picture above is the recreated BMW i8 for which they turned to the BMW 507 roadster for inspiration. The BMW 507 roadster was produced from 1956 to 1960. We used this one for the lead image because it’s our favorite.
For the Rivian R1T, Chasing Cars had to look for inspiration from other pick-up trucks of the era, as Rivian was not around back then. So they borrowed the twin vertical round headlight design of the International A Series truck, the cab design of the R1T, and the sharp contours of the Chevy C/K series to come up with the rendering above.
The Rimac Concept One is one of the most beautiful EV designs we’ve seen to date. We think they picked the perfect 60’s era sports car to use as the Concept One base vehicle, the original 1964 Ford GT. If you’re not familiar with the Ford GT, first shame on you, and secondly, watch the movie Ford vs. Ferrari.
For the Porsche Taycan, the Chasing Cars team didn’t need to look outside the brand for inspiration, as Porsche has been producing sleek-looking cars for many decades. They choose to use Porsche’s first production vehicle, the 356. The Porsche 356 was sold as a two-door coupe, roadster, or convertible and was made from 1948 to 1956.
Tesla was another brand that hasn’t been around long enough to look back at its design language from yesteryear. Therefore, they sought inspiration for the Model X remake from the Tesla Cybertruck as well as from the International Harvester Scout that began production in 1961.
For the Nissan LEAF, they reached back to when Nissan was called Datsun and used the Datsun 2000 from 1967. The 1967 Datsun 2000 was a really cute little roadster and the “LEAF2000” just doesn’t do the original much justice, we’re afraid.
Finally, we present to you the reimagined Toyota Prius Prime. The team used the third-generation Toyota Corona, which was made from 1964 to 1970. Chasing Cars says that creating this rendering was a little easier than the other vehicles because the Corona was sold as a five-door hatchback, and already had a similar shape as the hatchback rear of the Prius Prime.
What do you think – pretty cool, no? Let us know what current electric vehicles you’d like to see reimagined as different-era cars from the same manufacturer and maybe we can convince Chasing Cars to put together another edition for us.
