An EV with great range (e.g. 300mi), good performance (doesn’t have to be a sports car), and classic controls.
You could go real minimal on computers. You’d just need a microcontroller to monitor speed, temp, charge, battery health, etc. Basic cruise control of the 1990s type would be nice but not essential. A radio with a USB plug for a phone to play music and good speakers is all you need for an entertainment system.
Basically I’m describing an electric 90s Civic with mid range options.
Oh and no cellular modem or spyware.
Put all the money into drive train, battery, and reliability. Design it to have easily swappable and upgradable batteries and to last for 25-35 years.
You’d have one customer at least.
You could probably make a pickup version with killer torque and be like Tesla for red states. Rednecks will be sold on the electric thing once they see what instant full torque means.
So what exactly are the frills that you're setting aside? XM radio? Regen, DC-DC converter, all of these things require more than just a single microcontroller.
Modern engine should meet California emissions. It might require a modern engine control computer and all that jazz; which may be less serviceable but whatever. I'd take a modern computer controlled fuel injected what not over my old carburated v8 that was easy to adjust, but needed adjustment all the time. Just starts every time for me thanks.
But, ignoring engine adjustments, what I'd love in a car is things like using the most common lights; and making the lights easy to access. Because changing the lights is a normal and necessary thing to do.
Don't make it take 30-45 minutes to change the (12V) battery, because changing the battery when it dies is a normal and necessary thing to do.
Basically, design around ease of maintenance, more than making it look cool and hip. I'm not necessarily going to do all the maintenance, but if important things are easier to get to, it saves me money, because it saves my service shop time.
I'd love it if it wasn't 2 cm off the ground, so you could get under it to change the oil; but I'm not going to win that, because I'm exaggerating a bit, but low clearance helps fuel efficiency, and fuel efficiency is required. I'd also love less of the under body panels to help with airflow that get banged up and then fall off or drag and cause terrible noise.
An EV with great range (e.g. 300mi), good performance (doesn’t have to be a sports car), and classic controls.
You could go real minimal on computers. You’d just need a microcontroller to monitor speed, temp, charge, battery health, etc. Basic cruise control of the 1990s type would be nice but not essential. A radio with a USB plug for a phone to play music and good speakers is all you need for an entertainment system.
Basically I’m describing an electric 90s Civic with mid range options.
Oh and no cellular modem or spyware.
Put all the money into drive train, battery, and reliability. Design it to have easily swappable and upgradable batteries and to last for 25-35 years.
You’d have one customer at least.
You could probably make a pickup version with killer torque and be like Tesla for red states. Rednecks will be sold on the electric thing once they see what instant full torque means.