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Comment by smitty1e | Hacker News Reader

I'm less inimical to the idea of an electric car than I am all of the Orwellian control mechanisms that will come with it.

Contra all of the Really Smart People who seem to view the rest of humanity as livestock, a huge swath of people don't care to be bossed around and treated like livestock by those who are (a) too full of themselves and (b) demonstrably incorrect on pretty much every issue.

Get stuffed, global elite, and leave my diesel vehicle alone.

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One really has to stretch to equate the change of prime movers in an automobile to a global conspiracy to destroy free will.

What could the conspirators do with an electric vehicle that they couldn't do with a Hummer?

As it stands, I think every EV in the US market currently has some kind of built-in data connections to allow integrating with the manufacturer's mobile app. So not about the prime mover, but it just so happens that the current generation of EVs are more connected to the hivemind, if you will. Of course, a number of ICE cars are also that way.

I, for one, cannot wait for the day that somebody brings the Toyota Corolla of EVs to the market; something under $25k MSRP with nothing fancy. I don't need OTA updates or the ability to turn the AC on from my phone.

I think the manufacturing costs for things bluetooth connectors or touch screen are usually minimal compared to the thousands of pounds of raw materials, or extensive quality assurance needed to build a car. So often these are added to luxury cars where drivers are charged a premium for them, and then later added to lower tier cars as manufacturing costs have scaled down and R&D costs have been recovered.

All of this means if you want a new basic car your shit out of luck.

Since margin is notoriously low on vehicles, OEMs strive to shave pennies in cost. While I'm also skeptical that we'll have a no-frills EV in the future, too, I suspect it's because monetizing transportation data will outweigh the benefits of reduced cost.

The motors and batteries are commodities...you can make a pretty good electric S-10 or Ranger with an '80s-'00s model for maybe $20-30k over the cost of the donor. Stick the batteries under the bed.

Try it, and tell us it isn't the most fun you can have on four wheels.

For us shifter+clutch snobs all the praises of electric vehicles in this thread are falling on deaf ears.

No reason you couldn't have a manual transmission on an EV, it could even help with energy efficiency but it might not be worth the weight. Biggest challenge would be the extreme torque.

Both of my diesels are manual transmission, but this thread has gotten downmodded far harder than most of my unpopular inputs.

On blasphemes Gaia at peril.

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