The Wildest Car Design Choices in Recent Memory

The Polestar 4's missing rear window

Let’s start with the latter. Last week, Polestar showed off its new electric coupe-y SUV, the cleverly named Polestar 4. Again, the brand’s design prowess is on display with the new EV, save for a single feature or lack thereof. In place of a rear window, Polestar has decided that painted bodywork looks better. It also says that the feature allows the panoramic roof to stretch over and behind passengers' heads.

If you need to look out the rear window, the brand says a rearview camera is now in place of traditional glass. However, a traditional mirror can be used to view the rear passenger space. CEO Thomas Ingenlath told Automotive News the feature will actually make the car safer to boot. “At night you don't just see two tiny dots in the rearview mirror, you see so much more. And you can also look to see your kids back there with the press of a button.” Moreover, the camera features a wider viewing angle than a traditional mirror affords, which should also help with visibility.

Due to safety constraints, rear visibility in cars has become incredibly limited, and circumventing this with a camera seems logical. This is likely one of those moments where a company is ahead of the curve- I expect we’ll see this more and more in the future.

BYD Yangwang U9 jumping suspension

Chinese automaker BYD caused a stir when it announced the new E4 electric vehicle platform at the Shanghai Auto Show. But it wasn’t the platform that caused the stir. Instead, the car it rides on, in addition to its unique suspension, made the company stand out. The U9 can actually jump. BYD calls the suspension system that makes this possible DiSus-X.

Even if one wheel was taken off, the vehicle equipped with DiSus-X still showcased its ability to dance, jump and drive.#Yangwang #U9 #DiSus pic.twitter.com/nv1N0IZf3k

— BYD Global (@BYDGlobal) April 10, 2023

Essentially, the system allows the car to have complete control over its suspension at any point in time. For example, the damping rates can be increased by 200% and can lift each wheel independently of the others. In layman’s terms, the car can hit the three-wheel motion. Of course, when all of the car’s suspension points are rapidly raised to their maximum height, the car leaves the ground.

It’s only by a few inches, but it is insane to watch. The neat trick also means that if the car has a flat, this wheel can be raised off the ground while the other three do the driving.

Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept exhaust

While there’s plenty to talk about within the Daytona Concept’s design, we’re here for our first mechanical design leap. Dodge, being Dodge, decided its new electric muscle car needed to sound like a Muscle Car. So, the brand did its best to do just that. It fitted a fake exhaust. Dubbed the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust, the system is able to amplify the sound from the electric motors to some 126 decibels.

For reference, a gunshot from your average 9mm handgun clocks somewhere in the ballpark of 160 dB. Dodge has said before that it is still tweaking the sound, and there are definitely some V8 undertones to it now. It isn’t clear how manufactured this noise is. The brand insists an amplifier is actually boosting the sound of the electric motors, but there are clearly some layers of sound that are there for pure theater. Regardless, it did well at its task- grabbing headlines.

Genesis GV60 Crystal ball shifter

There’s quite a lot to dissect with the Genesis GV60’s design as a whole. The most logical place to start is probably inside, where Genesis made some interesting choices with the car’s shifter arrangement. In other models, a central dial is used to select gears. Here, the GV60 has a rotating orb for a shifter arrangement. This orb does a nice little spin when the car is started, and is illuminated.

At the time of the car’s release, it spawned a host of memes and certainly delivered on its intention to bring press to the car. Other strange design cues on the electric SUV include the brand’s hallmark split headlights and a very strange-looking rear end.

The back of the car echoes the split headlights, and the roof slopes down towards the rear with an interesting line across the rear quarter panel. It's an interesting design highlighted by a strange interior, but people seem to like it.

Ford Mustang key rev

Ford is taking a page from Dodge’s marketing strategy and making the new Mustang as obnoxious as it can be. Frankly, Ford can do whatever it wants to the Mustang – the muscle car still outsells the Charger and Challenger. Still, being able to rev the Mustang’s V8 from the key does seem a little anti-social.

Ford says it works much the same as your car’s remote starter, just with a few extra steps. As you would with remote start, the lock button on the key has to be pressed before double-tapping the remote starter button. Then, users have to press unlock followed by lock.

The car’s revs will rise noticeably to around 2,000 rpm. Repeating that step will rev the engine to roughly 5,000 rpm. It looks like this can only be done once before the process is repeated, so hopefully, it’ll keep your neighbor from annoying you too much.