Ian Callum CBE: “Why it’s important for electric vehicles to be cool”
In the latest episode of the Everything Podcast, British car design icon Ian Callum CBE explains why it is important for electric vehicles to be cool in order for the industry to continue to grow.
Having worked for some of the most distinguished motor companies and on some of the most prestigious car models in history, Ian Callum has been at the very heart of the motor industry for over four decades.
Whilst he is responsible for the design of some of the most classic car models, Callum has also been an important figure in the electric vehicle era, particularly for leading the design of Jaguar’s very first electric car, the I-Pace.
In the latest episode of the Everything EV Podcast, Callum joined host Charlie Atkinson to discuss the electric vehicle industry in general, some of his favourite EV models and why it is important for electric vehicles to be ‘cool’.
He said: “If you can shape and style a car, and design it in a way that is bang up to date in terms of design and style and feature, it takes away a lot of these reasons for not buying. I think we have to persuade people that electric cars are extremely cool things anyway, and I think it’s quite important that they represent themselves and they show themselves as being something that’s part of this century and certainly this decade, so that aspect of it I think is quite important. That’s happening, that’s coming.
“If anyone is sceptical about it, you’ll find it’s because of one of two reasons. One is because the infrastructure doesn’t suit them which is going to be the case for many, many people for a long time, or they love the sound of a V8. Well, have the V8 as well, keep it in the garage somewhere, play with it at some point. They’re just sceptical of the whole notion of electric vehicles because of the inheritance in history but people get over that. They are cool things and great fun.”
But which electric vehicles available today does Callum consider to be cool? At the end of the episode, Atkinson asked Callum to pick out a few models from the electric vehicles of today, to see which ones had the ‘Ian Callum stamp of approval’.
“I think Porsche is doing a really good job,” Callum said. “When the Taycan came out as a concept, I knew it wasn’t going to be feasible as it was, there just wasn’t enough space in the car to put everything it needed, especially with a skateboard platform. But I think what they’ve done is extremely good. I think the Audi’s are quite exciting; I’ve always admired their design and their sense of excitement, so I think the electric Audi’s are looking quite good.
“Some of the other ones are still a bit conventional; I think they could be a bit more exciting. I think the Mercedes is perhaps a little bit conventional looking, and perhaps the e-tron is a bit conventional looking as well, having mentioned Audi, but I think the Sport version is very good.”
