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Comment by nisa | Hacker News Reader

I hope someone will build a super simplified EV that's affordable and lacks all the digital stuff - no touchscreen, no lcd displays, no included navigation software, no automated assistance systems, physical knobs all the way.

Add some way to pair my phone via bluetooth to send audio to the speakers and a place to put it for using google maps / openstreetmap or any other software on my phone.

And spend all the energy in optimizing the drag coefficient and reduce weight and make it not ugly or avant-garde or whatever is on the designers mind that reduces functionality.

Everyone is talking about how EVs are far simpler to build, require less maintance but it's still more expensive than an ICE car? Is this all the price of the battery?

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The market doesn't want this though.

How many Toyota Yaris's sell per year? What you are describing sounds mostly worse than that. The market says F150 with all kinds of fancy tech is great.

Not everything is the US, though. In The Netherlands in 2022 the most sold car was the Peugot 208, followed by the Kia Picanto.

I’m sure a simplified electric car would do great here.

The Netherlands is not a huge market for cars though. Everyone cycles there.

Toyota killed off the Yaris and Prius C (I think simultaneously so I assume they shared the chassis or something?).

> The market doesn't want this though.

I'm not so sure - I guess at least in Germany most people drive their 10 year old car as far as possible and don't even have the money to buy a new SUV.

I'm in my 30ies and most of my friends don't have a car, we drive a 2004 Mazda that we inherited and that is shared with the wider family.

A simple, well-designed usable EV for 20k€ or less might be something me and my friends buy.

Big SUVs and luxery cars might sell well because most people are just priced out of the market.

Used cars have insane prices - same as new after a few years.

There is nothing like the Golf II, even a Polo is more expensive then the Golf at the time.

I don't get it we have huge weight that requires huge batteries and tons of software and sensors and systems - substract everything that's not mandatory or required for security and optimize for weight and range - I can't imagine it's impossible. Max speed 140km/h would also be more than enough. There must be some tradeoffs without compromising security that get the most out of the idea of an EV. 20 years ago we had the Audi A2 that had a usage of just 3-4L/100km will all the improvement in simulation and material science there must be a way. Now everyone is moving two tons around in these big SUVs...

Hear, hear! Just make a Kia Rio with an EV drivetrain and sell it for under $25k.

Chinese brands sell very nice EVs for $30k-$35k. They are entering the European market right now and that is scaring the local manufacturers.

My only requirement for a car is that it works with Openpilot. Everything else? Don’t care, don’t need it. I’d prefer that my car didn’t have any additional displays or any connectivity options at all.

BYD already has great affordable and plain-looking EVs. If we were less fixated on a high-3-digit range, geopolitics and/or profits, we would've had them too.

buttons are more expensive than touchscreens

Touchscreen systems are expensive than a bank of buttons.

That’s probably up for debate. Buttons break, buttons need backer boards, buttons need complex trim, buttons need lights, buttons need surfaces, buttons wear, etc, etc.

Federal regulations require a backup camera, so you already need the screen. Screens are reliable, static, and easy to install.

my comment was not meant to be absolutist - what I'm looking for is just a very reduced and usable simple car - I don't mind a non-offensive screen if it's required and where it's useful and well made a touch interface might also be useful - but I don't need 99% of the digital things that are packed in a car - I'm not familiar with the building or cost setup of modern EVs but I could imagine that reducting in sensors and cabling might have an effect. Then give me that backup camera, some minimal android auto interface or whatever there is - I can't imagine there isn't a market for that.

The screen has to be there anyway for regulatory reasons.

The touch sensor itself is far cheaper than a bank of buttons.

Also, buttons don't allow for more "engagement" with the user than their function require, meaning less surveillance money.

Also you can't add a McDonalds button on the fly, in an over the air update, unless you use a touchscreen. This is obviously bad for some stakeholder.

volt, leaf?

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