I think the I series cars are purposely going into left field. I think they’re realizing if you’re in the market for a high end electric vehicle you want to feel like you’re driving a space ship, and I don’t blame them.
I love the conservative stance that Audi has taken, and I think if you look at the general BMW lineup (The 3, 5, 7 series) they’ve actually brought the cars back from a lot of the flame surfacing and other things that Bangle-era haters despised. They’ve kept the surfacing very simple and while there are still some surfacing details, they don’t overpower (I don’t like the vents in particular, but thats a new element they’ve introduced going forward on some vehicles).
I think if you look at the rest of the cars they’ve done a nice job of keeping their elements without over surfacing them like Hyundai has gone and done. I think the Hyundai language actually works rather well in most cases.
There’s always 2 ends of design and the Flex is a nice vehicle, but to some people that’s just painfully boring.
I like what BMW is trying to do with the I because it’s the opposite of what Tesla is trying to do. The Model S is a nice car, that just happens to be electric. The i8 is a space ship that just happens to be a car. I’m glad someone in the mainstream is pushing that boundary.
In 2002 everyone screamed at how much they hated the new 7 series…and a few years later that same back end is on a Toyota Camry. If that doesn’t show that “radical” auto design can push into the mainstream very quickly, I don’t know what will.