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Comment by cmrdporcupine | Hacker News Reader

Annoyingly, I want an electric car without "digitilization". No distracting central touch screen, no "autopilot" nonsense, proper gauges and indicators, tactile feel. A focus on the driving and safety and ergonomics, not on "we don't need an instrument cluster because iPads are cool, people like their phones and buttons are expensive and break"...

A Saab 900 with an electric motor. Please make it.

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Not quite a Saab 900, but perhaps the Bollinger B-1? https://bollingermotors.com/bollinger-b1/

If only the Bollinger offerings weren't 100k+ MSRP :(

It's not clear at all to me why someone would buy that over the much less expensive and seemingly more capable Rivian R1S.

that's very cool. expensive, but cool.

The newly announced (today) Genesis GV70 Electrified seems to fit the bill. Genesis is Hyundai's somewhat new luxury brand - Hyundai really screwed up the launch so almost nobody knows about it, but they make some pretty decent luxury cars at good prices and haven't deleted all the buttons like in current Mercedes/Audis and BMW's new products. Infotainment system has a knob; the screens are touchscreen but they're placed pretty far back in the dash and so the knob is the primary control method. Physical buttons for media controls and on the steering wheel. The new gen products have moved a few of the climate controls to a small touchscreen, but the commonly used function are still physical. Overall, way better than all of the competitors at keeping the car usable.

Genesis announced earlier this year that they plan to be all electric by 2025. And unlike most of these statements from most manufacturers, this one is actually believable. Hyundai/Kia have been pretty successful at selling electric cars in Europe; they have the engineering resources built up for EVs and Genesis should be able to take advantage of that.

The GV70 is expected to have around 250 miles of range. In addition to that I think they're also going to be releasing the electrified G80 (midsize luxury sedan) pretty soon.

I believe Citroen makes one, but I'm not sure it can be bought... Initially they said they'd sell it in supermarkets https://electrek.co/2021/05/04/citroen-ami-small-electric-ca...

And they do! You can buy it at FNAC stores in malls.

Tommykaira

Imagine if your tesla’s interior looked like this: https://youtu.be/oPAvyt9ZNrg?t=221

https://smallblogv8.blogspot.com/2020/10/oh-yeah-tommykaira-...

DIY conversions are quite possible. Go find an old car, rip out the old engine, put in the electric engine. It clearly is more complex than that, as there is wiring involved and you need to match it up to the transmission, but if you really want an old car with an electric motor, it is an achievable goal.

I drive an VW e-up! which has none of the fancy digital gimmics you mentioned. It is a perfect distraction free city car that doesn't spy on you.

Looks neat. Does it identify itself to the charging kiosk, not sure there is any way of getting around that. Power reqs only, or serial numbers as well?

Saab 900 with a Mach E crate motor swap.

Wouldn't work well, that crate motor is made for transverse mounting, the 900 is famous for its longitudinal & backwards motor (and perfectly balanced to avoid torque steer).

A good candidate for a Tesla drive unit transplant, probably. Too bad I don't have the mechanical skills to do it myself (I have a non-running 1984 900 SPG in my garage)

It's an integrated drive unit, just like the Tesla drive unit (with the exception that the Tesla includes an inverter in the IDU; the Eluminator, sadly, does not.)

The only thing you'd need is a cradle and custom half-shafts.

Isn't the Tesla drive unit also mounted transverse? Or do you mean that there are more aftermarket solutions to resolve this for Tesla drive units?

It is mounted transverse it's kind of set out in a way I can see it fitting in the 900 chassis ok. I haven't physically measured it, but I think it could drop in from eyeballing it.

But the big reason is that the Tesla units include the gear reduction to directly attach to the short axles. The 900 has a funny arrangement where the engine is part of a whole transaxle unit which sits on top of the transmission and oil pan, drives the transmission by a chain, and then the axles hang out the side of the unit. I think the Tesla units could drop right in there, just need new axles.

There's a couple Model S rear drive units hanging around in local classifieds. I've been tempted but I don't think I can justify spending $$ on yet another project I'd never finish.

The Tesla unit is offset transverse whereas the Eluminator is coaxial. Both are integrated drive units - electric motor and gearbox.

Telsa includes the inverter in the drive module; the Eluminator requires an external inverter, unfortunately.

Quite the missed opportunity, because it would be nearly drop-in if it included an inverter. That's what is so great about the Tesla module. You feed it power and CAN bus commands and boom, you've got torque.

Yep, and the Tesla units are also more compact and from looking at the Eluminator it doesn't attach directly to the short axles, would require some other gearbox attached, no?

I suspect the inverter was not released with it because there is IP there that they cannot give away / sell. Tesla wouldn't either, you can only get that drive unit by salvage.

The Nissan Leaf has some of that but has physical buttons and such and drives much like a classical car. The 62kwh version has 200+ miles of range. Price is very competitive too.

The MG ZS EV. It has analog gauges and tactile buttons. It does have a touch screen, but that is just for the radio. Everything else has a physical button or switch

I believe Wuling MiniEV is exactly that.

Current MiniEV ships with a display for instrument cluster, earlier ones had dials.

The infotainment is usually a separate system, rip it out, and/or provide your own ECU. Not what you want, I know, but more immediately viable.

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