There are a thousand questions surrounding the electric car: Who will make it? Will it really work? And--to the chagrin of General Motors brass--who killed it?

But one of the most pressing questions is just now being contemplated: How will it look?

There are plenty of ideas. Some, such as the Toyota Prius, a gasoline-electric hybrid, have broken the mold with their unconventional looks. The much-anticipated Chevrolet Volt looks fairly mainstream and some would say plain. And the upcoming plug-in electric sports sedan and roadster from startup Fisker Automotive are among the most eye-catching of any new products, period.

So where does that leave the consumer? With more questions. But designers say electric propulsion offers them more opportunities--and potentially more freedom--to open up car design.

“People who spend money on technology . . . want to wear that on their sleeve,” said Bob Boniface, design director for the Volt. “[But] it does still need to have one foot in the mainstream so it fits in people’s lives.”

Boniface was speaking on a panel Tuesday in downtown Detroit comprised of a who’s who of car designers, including Henrik Fisker, CEO of Fisker Automotive, and Moray Callum, Ford’s executive director of design for the Americas. Doug Frasher of Volvo and Robert Bauer of Nissan also weighed in.

The group pointed to the grille as an area where consumers could see an immediate impact on sheetmetal. Electric cars don’t require the same level of ventilation as conventional motors, and that gives designers considerably more ways to stretch the boundaries of what a car’s face could look like.

The hood, one of the signature features of the appearance of many cars, also will be impacted, designers say, mostly because they anticipate that electric motors will need different layouts and potentially less space.

“You don’t necessarily have that huge engine up front, so you can sculpt the hood,” Fisker said.

That’s precisely what he did with his two new cars, the Karma sedan and the Karma S retractable hardtop. A former Aston Martin designer, Fisker and his company placed a premium on exotic looks. In turn, the company is betting that consumers will pay a premium--the Karma starts at $87,900--for the technology, which promises a range of 50 miles on electricity before a generator kicks on to charge the battery.

Expect changes on the inside too, designers say. A pressing issue with the Chevy Volt was the layout of its T-shaped battery pack, which has been fitted fairly comfortably underneath the center. Once battery placement is resolved, look for new storage areas, particularly if gasoline tanks shrink.

Designers drew comparisons to Formula One, which is always wrestling with weight distribution, aerodynamics and, to a lesser extent, appearance while tying to make faster, efficient cars. This season, teams have dealt with a new energy-recovery system, called KERS, as well as a double-deck rear diffuser, features that must be integrated--almost on-the-fly--into usable designs.

Companies are taking divergent paths. Toyota, and now Honda with its Insight hybrid, have gone for the unconventional looks, while Ford has simply added hybrid technology to existing products, such as the Fusion.

Up next for Ford is a plug-in electric version of the Focus, to be built in Wayne, Mich., at a former SUV plant. As with the Fusion, which simply got a special dash and some green leaf-hybrid badging, the electric Focus will be close to the conventionally powered car, said Callum, who took over as Ford’s top designer on May 1 from Peter Horbury.

Nissan also appears to be adopting a mainstream approach, and its first electric car is to be a five-passenger family sedan, Bauer said.