Ever stared at a Tesla Cybertruck or a Faraday Future FF 91 and wondered if we’re living in a poorly rendered 1980s cyberpunk movie? Honestly, the spaceship looking car isn’t just a gimmick anymore. It’s a design necessity. For decades, car designers were stuck in a box—literally. Internal combustion engines required big radiators, long hoods, and specific cooling paths that dictated how a vehicle looked. But the electric revolution changed the rules of the game.
Look at the Aptera. It’s a three-wheeled solar electric vehicle that looks less like a Toyota Corolla and more like something Captain Kirk would use for a weekend getaway. It has a drag coefficient of 0.13. To put that in perspective, a sleek sports car usually hovers around 0.25 to 0.30. By making a spaceship looking car, Aptera isn't just trying to be "weird" for the sake of Instagram likes; they are fighting the air. Physics is a brutal boss. When you're trying to squeeze 1,000 miles of range out of a battery, you can't have the aerodynamic profile of a brick.
Why the Spaceship Aesthetic is Actually About Physics
Air is heavy. At highway speeds, most of your energy goes toward just pushing molecules out of the way. This is why the teardrop shape is the holy grail of automotive design.
Designers like Sasha Selipanov, who worked on the Koenigsegg Gemera and the Bugatti Chiron, have often talked about the tension between "beautiful" traditional forms and the "functional" demands of high-tech aero. When you see a spaceship looking car like the Mercedes-Benz VISION EQXX, you're seeing a vehicle designed by a wind tunnel. The tail is elongated. The wheels are covered. It looks alien because humans didn't prioritize "cool" over "efficient"—they let the math decide.
We’ve spent a century conditioned to think a car needs a face. A grille. Eyes. But an EV doesn't need to breathe through its front end. This allows for the "cab-forward" design seen in cars like the Lucid Air or the Hyundai Ioniq 6. They have short hoods and massive cabins. It feels airy inside. Like a cockpit. If you’ve ever sat in a Tesla Model X with that panoramic windshield that stretches over your head, you know the feeling. It’s total immersion.
Real Examples of the Galaxy’s Best Commuters
The Cybertruck is the elephant in the room. Love it or hate it, Franz von Holzhausen and Elon Musk leaned into a "low-poly" aesthetic that looks like a glitch in the Matrix. It uses cold-rolled stainless steel that can't be bent into soft, organic curves. Hence, the sharp, triangular, spaceship looking car silhouette. It’s brutalist. It’s divisive. But it’s also undeniably futuristic in a way that makes a Ford F-150 look like an antique.
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Then there is the HiPhi Z. Coming out of China, this thing is basically a rolling LED show. It has "programmable light curtains" that can project emojis or messages to other drivers. Is it overkill? Probably. But it represents a shift where the car is no longer a mechanical tool, but a digital device. Inside, the screen is mounted on a high-speed robotic arm that turns to face you. It’s a bit eerie, actually.
The Flying Car Overlap
We can't talk about these designs without mentioning the eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) market. Companies like Joby Aviation and Archer are building "cars" for the sky. While these aren't hitting the 405 freeway anytime soon, their design language is bleeding back into terrestrial vehicles.
- Carbon fiber monocoques.
- Minimalist interfaces.
- Wraparound glass.
The XPeng AeroHT is a literal spaceship looking car because it’s a supercar that unfolds into a multi-rotor drone. It sounds like vaporware, but they’ve actually conducted public flight tests in Dubai. When the line between "car" and "aircraft" blurs, the styling follows suit.
Why Some People Hate the Future
Not everyone wants to look like they’re commuting to a moon base. There’s a psychological comfort in the "three-box" sedan. It feels safe. Predictable. There’s a reason the Porsche Taycan, despite being a tech powerhouse, still looks like a Porsche. It keeps one foot in the past.
However, the younger demographic—those who grew up with Halo and Mass Effect—doesn't have that same nostalgia for chrome bumpers and roaring V8s. To them, a spaceship looking car represents progress. It represents a clean break from the oil-soaked 20th century.
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There's also the "Uncanny Valley" of car design. When a car tries too hard to look futuristic but keeps old-school door handles or mirrors, it looks clunky. The best designs, like the Lotus Evija, integrate the tech into the bodywork. The Evija has massive Venturi tunnels running through the rear of the car. You can literally see through the body. It’s functional art.
The Interior: Living in a Command Center
The "spaceship" vibe isn't just skin deep. Step inside a Cadillac Celestiq. It has a 55-inch pillar-to-pillar screen. You don't have "buttons." You have haptic surfaces and voice-activated AI.
BMW’s i7 features a "Theater Screen" that drops from the ceiling for rear passengers. It’s a 31-inch 8K display. When you activate it, the blinds go up, the lights dim, and a soundscape composed by Hans Zimmer plays through the speakers. That is a cinematic experience, not a car ride. It’s the realization of the "third space"—the idea that your car is a destination between work and home.
A Reality Check on Maintenance
Owning a spaceship looking car isn't all stardust and lasers.
- Insurance is higher because those complex composite bodies are hard to repair.
- Software glitches can turn your high-tech throne into a very expensive paperweight.
- Public attention can be exhausting. You can’t exactly go to a grocery store in a HiPhi Z without someone filming you for TikTok.
The tech is moving faster than the infrastructure. We have cars that look like they can hit warp speed, but we're still dealing with broken Level 2 chargers at the local mall.
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How to Choose Your Own Sci-Fi Ride
If you’re actually in the market for a spaceship looking car, you need to prioritize your specific "brand" of futurism.
Are you a Minimalist? Look at the Polestar 4. It doesn't even have a rear window. It uses a camera and a digital mirror instead. It’s clean, Swedish, and looks like it belongs in a high-end lunar colony.
Are you a Cyber-Goth? The Cybertruck is the only answer. Its stainless steel skin is virtually indestructible against shopping carts and, apparently, small-caliber rounds (though I wouldn't test that).
Are you a Luxury Trekkie? The Lucid Air Sapphire offers 1,200+ horsepower and an interior that feels like a first-class lounge on a galactic cruiser. It’s fast enough to make your vision blur, hitting 0-60 in under 2 seconds.
Actionable Next Steps for the Future-Minded
If you’re ready to ditch the mundane and embrace the interstellar, start by researching the aerodynamic drag coefficients of current EVs; the lower the number, the more "spaceship" the engineering. Visit a showroom for a brand like Lucid or Rivian just to experience the UI—modern car interfaces are where the "spaceship" feel truly lives. Finally, check your local laws regarding digital mirrors and lighting, as some of the coolest "spaceship" features are still stuck in a legal gray area in certain regions. The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed across every dealership lot yet.