But what if your window cranking was charging your battery? :D

What if we skip the battery part, use crank as the power unit? Boom, bicycle! :D

They have these in Berlin now. Hermes et al are using them as last mile delivery vans. I see them every day and I love it.

https://hermesworld.com/int/about-us/responsibility/service-...

and newer: https://onomotion.com/en/

Crank windows are good because they're cheaper and lighter than electric windows. There's no heavy electric motor in each door. It's not that they're necessary, so much that saving money on frivolous features is nice!

They are not always frivolous. For example, I have a car which rolls down the windows about an inch when the door is opened, because the door does not have a frame that fully encases the window. So it's a glass preservation feature in that case, and the loss of the steel to fully encase the window probably saved weight over the window motors.

And TBH, electric motors aren't that heavy. You still need all the gearing and such with a hand crank.