What Will Be Considered ‘Retro’ Automotive Design in 2060?

Flared jeans saw peak popularity in the 1970s, but by the end of the decade, this style trend died out and was replaced by other styles. By the 1990s, flares were back, this time being favoured by the younger generation instead of the people who originally wore them. Another 20 years later, flares are yet again back in vogue.

Fashion trends are cyclical, and automotive design trends are no different. Designers sometimes reference designs from the past to inform new designs, tapping into people’s nostalgia and giving it a modern twist to create an entirely new product. 

“Retro tends to come along when the idea cycle that's been going on or whatever is current runs its course, and there's not much fresh at the moment,” says former automotive designer turned professor Jason White. White worked as an interior designer for Ford in the 2000s and later had a short stint as a designer at Hyundai.

White says it’s very common for the automotive industry to look to the past for inspiration, adding that the cycle happens about every 20 years.

Retro design comes in waves, he explains. It will be popular one decade and then abandoned the next in favour of contemporary design. 

The designs referenced will usually date back 30 to 40 years. In the 2000s, for example, 1960s cars were referenced. In the 1970s, cars from the 1930s became a source of inspiration. The current 1980s revival follows this pattern, referencing designs from 40 years ago, and taking place about 20 years after the 2000s retro craze that saw cars like the Ford Thunderbird and New Beetle make a comeback. 

Based on this cycle, we can assume this pattern will likely continue, and in around 40 years, 2020s designs will be fondly looked upon and reimagined. This presents a question: which of today’s automotive design features will we look to for inspiration in 40 years?

A Brief Look at Retro Design 

One of the first retro automotive design waves began towards the end of the 1960s. Former Chrysler designer Virgil Exner created a series of revival cars for a 1963 issue of Esquire Magazine. These showcased then-modern reinterpretations of defunct car brands from the 1920s and 1930s, such as Stutz and Duesenberg. 

The revival cars brought back classic styling features like opera windows, vinyl roofs, and rear tire humps, all features seen in pre-war cars. Many of the design elements seen on these rival cars would find their way onto many mainstream American cars in the 1970s and 1980s.

By the 1980s, American automakers shifted away from retro designs and focused on technology and efficiency. As a result, designs became sleeker, especially compared to cars of the 1970s. However, by the late 1980s, retro styling made another short-lived return with Nissan’s Pike cars. This was a limited run series of cars designed to reference cars from the 1950s with rounded headlights, pastel colours, and chrome accents.

The 2000s saw the biggest retro design craze in the automotive industry so far. From sports cars to compacts, the whole automotive world looked to their archives for inspiration. BMW notably brought back the Mini, Volkswagen introduced the New Beetle, and Fiat reintroduced the 500. 

Luxury brands also joined in on this trend. Jaguar introduced the S-Type, and Mercedes adopted a more classic headlight design. Other automakers looked back as far as the 1930s, with examples such as the Chrysler PT Cruiser, Chevrolet HHR, and even the Audi TT. 

Later in the 2000s, the American Big Three revived their iconic muscle cars from the 1960s. The Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, and new Dodge Challenger were cashing in on this retro design craze. 

Despite the initial success at launch, many of these retro-inspired cars ended their production run by the 2010s. Hype around classic designs died down, and automakers began to favour fresh designs. 

Today in the 2020s, the retro trend is back, but this time references 1980s futurism. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is probably the best example of this trend. While it may not directly reference a specific model, it takes design inspiration from “futuristic” cars seen in 1980s sci-fi movies like Blade Runner or Back to The Future. Design features such as a boxy, minimalist shape and prominent lightbars were all key design features. Cars like the Tesla Cybertruck and Renault 5 E-Tech hark back to the 1980s. 

What Design Cues from Today Will We Reference in the Future?

The designs that are most often reproduced in some form are the most iconic ones. 

“I've heard a lot of people saying that cars look too alike at the moment, and there's some truth to that,” White says, pondering what aspects of automotive design from the present day are likely to see a second life. “So it's kind of hard to pick out a specific vehicle or a specific model that would later be emulated later on. One thing that everybody's doing right now — and it doesn't seem to be attached to any particular vehicle — is the long, spearing marker lamps on the fenders.”

The shape of vehicles has also changed, and White points to one particular trend that’s growing in popularity. 

“I hate to say it, but I think one retro thing that will definitely show up later on, unfortunately, is low-poly design,” White says. 

Low-poly refers to designs with minimal polygons. In the automotive industry, this refers to vehicles with minimal lines and curves. Vehicles like the Tesla Cybertruck and Hyundai Santa Fe embody this well; their designs are pretty boxy and lack any real curves.

“There's a lot of other vehicles that are experimenting with low-poly design. The Santa Fe and some other cars are trying to go really low-poly,” White says. “My guess is low-poly will resurface because it's one of [today’s] few very bold aesthetic styles.”

White also mentions how interiors are also subject to receiving retro touches, with screens likely to be better integrated into car designs in the future, which means that large stand-up screens are going to be seen as retro one day.

“For years and years, as an interior designer, they kept telling you, ‘No sharp corners anywhere.’ You know, you don’t really want to create a hazard,” White says. “Now suddenly, it's apparently OK to have a rectangular, cornered object. Eventually, when you get to a point where screens are going to be made, they've got shape to them, and when that happens, we'll be able to integrate that into the instrument panel. Everything's going to look a lot better.”

Final Thoughts

Car design from the 2020s has already been established, and 2000s design trends will make a resurgence sooner rather than later in the automotive world. While it's hard to imagine a vehicle like the current Hyundai Santa Fe seeing a second life in 40 years — and it may not — aspects of its design will be emblematic of this period of car design.

Over the past 10 years, design has shifted from very complex, overdesigned cars to ones that are much more minimalist inside and out. Many of the buttons that would have been commonplace 15 years ago are now a sign of the times, predating the adoption of the touchscreen. Even in the past five years, the automotive industry moved away from small screens to ones that dominate an entire dashboard. Needless to say, the anatomy of the car constantly changes, and car design will continue to inspire itself.