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Sweet fuck I've been over in the Canada boards for too long. You have no idea how much "No Frills EV" just hurt my brain lmao. Worst part is, my brain out the capitals there.
Imagine an early 2000s car running on an electric motor. That's what I want.
Step one: Buy 2000s car.
Step two: Converted it to EV.
Step three: Done!
There are business made on this promise with more or less benefits of economies of scale.
You can find videos how people do it on YouTube.
Example: https://www.fellten.com/system/mini
VW sold the e-Golf in the US between 2015 and 2019, which was available with physical key and no-frills interior - some base models even sported an analog instrument cluster!
yo SAAAAAAAAAAAME
and also actual fucking buttons switches knobs and dials for HVAC and media control
not to mention a normal fucking PRNDL shifter for selecting how I want it to move
why is this so gods damned much to ask for -_-
Kia and Hyundai EVs tend to have physical controls for most things
But how much are they tracking you?
What's a PRNDL?
Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Low (gear). The 5 "standard" positions the standard automatic gearshift levers could be set to. Versus the weird stuff like dials or push-buttons that are incredibly hard to operate by muscle-memory if you aren't looking right at them.
EVs have no gears, they don't need this stuff. Or they have a manual simulation.
EVs have no gears
GOOD THING THESE AREN'T GEARS THEN, FUCKO
THEY'RE MODE SELECTIONS
EVs do, in fact, Park.
EVs can, in fact, Reverse.
EVs must, in fact, need to be capable of rolling free (Neutral) and it would be BETTER if you could do that by disconnecting the drive train to eliminate the risk of the "regenerative braking" system overloading its electrical system and making the battery explode.
EVs furthermore OBVIOUSLY Drive.
"Low" in the traditional sense is clearly not necessary, obviously, but it could be nice to have a mode selection for what people have sometimes described as "single pedal driving" where regeneration is configured so aggressively that letting up on the accelerator pedal will cause the car to decelerate rapidly without the need to touch the brake pedal.
Just gotta say I’m here for this energy
thank you for understanding the intended tone (and kinda just a little bit making my day :3)
Yeah, actually a low mode would be useful for exactly this, in exactly the same use cases as for ICE cars. Whatever my regen is configured as, if I’m heading down a steep icy hill, maybe I could use an easy way to maximize regen. Heck maybe my battery is not warmed up yet so I don’t have effective regen, but I could really use it for that hill even if that battery can’t use it
It seems to me that you don't understand how EVs work. They don't have gears (usually) and they don't have a constantly running combustion engine.
Neutral and park (park is just neutral with a break automatically applied) do not exist in EVs, because EVs don't have a constantly running engine. You only need neutral to disengage the clutch to prevent its wear during stops, because always running engine means that the car is always moving. That's not happening in EVs.
And you don't need low/boost because EVs don't have gears.
So, you only have reverse and drive.
Huh, my EV also has neutral and park. It can be very useful to yet the wheels freewheel or to lock the wheels. However no PRNDL shifter control for usability
You can't freewheel on EV, there's no mechanism for that. You can have a software simulation though, but it's not needed for anything.
When mine is configured for aggressive regen, it slows the vehicle to a stop. You couldn’t push the car, for example
That's just a software feature, not a real neutral.
As others have mentioned, it refers to the gear shift. But it actually has a meaningful origin - many years ago, the gear order was not agreed upon. Many cars had a gear shift that was PNDLR (which I've heard pronounced "pendler"), where reverse was at the end. At the time, it was useful to tell the difference between a PRNDL and a PNDLR shift.
Of course that was all before 1971, when PRNDL was mandated by the US government.
This is forever burned into my head. I've not really watched that series and I remember nothing else. Just PRNDL.
I know they're not for everyone, but Smart Cars are actually devoid of Smart as in IOT. If you're not huge, get in one and try it out. I have a gas one and it's my favorite car ever, and I last drove a Porsche Boxter. They're fast enough, sip gas (or electricity I'm sure) and are so easy to drive. The turning radius is like 90 degrees and it's so nice having the front of the car stop where your feet are instead of a giant protruding hood. They're very cheap too and they're made by Mercedes so it's easy enough to get them worked on.
GN has some "regular car" EV options available. The Bolt EUV and the Equniox EV start at $27k and $35k USD. Both come with a panel of physical buttons and come with a traditional physical metal key.
Bolt:
Equinox:
The Bolt EUV is as close as you'll get with new vehicles as far as I know in North America.
You can find a Nissan Leaf, they started production in 2010. But from what I heard the batteries degrade quickly due to how they were designed.
The Leaf is being redesigned to finally modernize it. The new one coming out later this year should be better now.
It's a suv now, no longer a hatchback
Everything is an SUV now... :(
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The last Bolt model year was 2023 - you can't really find new ones at dealer lots anymore. There is supposed to be a new version coming at some point, but no official details or timeframe yet.
Dacia Spring is literally 2000 car converted to EV. I love it.
Go test drive some cars that aren't Teslas. None of them require phone apps. Pretty sure all the manufacturers are also walking back the touch screen nonsense and I think Kia is the best in the US right now for EVs with physical buttons.
I truly feel sorry for anybody that is in the not sweet spot I guess the sour spot of not being able to select the vehicle of their choice due to economic factors, and being forced to buy one of these used pieces of shit that is replete with garbage technology that does not serve the user in any meaningful way. Oh my God, I've never one from that generation and I never will, and I consider myself blessed. Just operating a microwave nowadays is torture, give me a fucking chunky button and let me press the fucking thing.
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What car maker is not providing keys? As far as I know, app control is optional.
Many car "keys" are wireless tokens nowadays (tbf I'm not sure of the security compared to traditional keys, I only heard some brands like Kias were very easy to steal in the last few years).
Mostly we want a million buttons with tactile feedback, I'm with OP! I would also like an EV "econobox": a sensible shitty boxy lightweight car with a small LiFePo4 battery that charges fast. Spend 100$ more dollars on the charger and cooling goddammit, or make THAT upgradable!
The Kia's that where easy to steal used cheap keys though, the push to start Kia's where not being stolen.
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Not only that but make it cheaper and give me the option of power windows or not. I can crank my own windows up and down, I don't need it "motorized". Let's make cars available to the masses again.
The reason there aren’t anymore crank windows isn’t because it’s a mandatory upsell, it’s because motorized is probably as cheap or even cheaper thanks to modern manufacturing and the preference of 99% of other people.
Yup, now that they are so widespread and reliable putting a cheap motor and wiring it up is most likely cheaper than designing and testing a mechanical connection for specific models.
Rivians come with only a single key fob, and it's not all that reliable either. Two "key cards" but those suck in their own ways
At least in the US, You will struggle to find a car newer than like 2015 that doesn't have a screen, and it's basically impossible to find one newer than 2018 because it's mandated at the federal level to have a backup camera installed.
you may not find full on infotainment system, there will be some sort of screen involved. But many manufacturers go by the methodology that if they're installing a screen anyway for backup cam they might as well just go the whole nine yards and have it be a full-on infotainment system
Sadly I don't have any recommendations, but I'm considering taking this plunge as well so I'll keep my eye out on this thread
One of the reasons is that in i think 2018, they made backup cameras mandatory.
EDIT: 2018 NOT 2016
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the latest Citroën e-c3 is super-stripped. physical key, no frills at all. the range also takes a hit to keep costs down though.
Sounds like you're looking for something that only exists in the used market, which may be your plan anyway.
The Mitsubishi imiev never took off, but it's probably the least-frilly EV you can buy. But as Doug Demuro will tell you, it's a bit quirky. Assuming you're American, yes, is was released in the States but no, you probably wouldn't have heard of it. I'm not sure I'd recommend it necessarily, but it's an option
That said, I have a Chevy Bolt. Pretty easy to find on the used market (and with that, get service if you need it) no dumb features nobody asked for. It does have Android Auto/Apple Car Play, which is actually pretty awesome (I believe it's the 2022+ models with wireless car play). Their base models are pretty barebones (some don't even have DC fast charging, watch out for that) but higher trims do have some nice features to them. It's kind of a car you've seen on the road but didn't know you actually wanted.
By the way, backup cameras became mandated a while ago. I'm not sure the screen size requirements (I've seen some cars put it in the rear view mirror, which was kinda cool actually) but since most cars need a screen now to support that, and higher trim levels will use that screen for other things, and making multiple pieces of hardware for the same car is an annoyance for car makers, you'll probably see a screen on most cars. Just FYI.
EV Conversion Kits is probably your best bet.
I would like to know more.
There's a lot of EV kits and also people converting petrol cars for a living, f.e. this little beetle:
https://youtu.be/kYmMrMEwl94?t=282
Just search for EV Conversion Kit and you'll find a lot of hits such as the first hit on duckduckgo for VW Golf 2005 EV Conversion Kit that may be bought with or without installation:
https://ev-evolution.eu/solution/volkswagen-golf-ev-conversion-kit/
Carice is a cool option.
An old school, no frills sports car, that happens to be all electric.
Sure, they're hand built to order. But in that class, they're surprising cheep. Less than €50K if I recall
The profit margins on cheap cars isn’t high enough yet to introduce EVs at that price.
Closest you can probably get is the Corolla hybrid base model. It’s not full EV and sadly isn’t even a plugin hybrid.
There actually are super cheap evs at the no frills used car market price, they're just illegal to import in the us due to protectionist policies.
The profit margins on cheap cars isn’t high enough yet to introduce EVs at that price.
What price? OP does not talk about cost at any point, they only require specific features.
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this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2025
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