An electric only latch would reduce parts count, simplify assembly, and ease door panel design for a new manufacturer. I'm also strongly in the "keep things mechanical" camp but I see the appeal to engineers making a new model car and wanting to keep things simple.

I disagree. Dozens of parts are needed simply to bring an electric wire into a door. Every penetration needs grommets and strain relief. A flexible weatherproof system needs to get the wire from the door to the rest of the car. Relays. Fuses. It all adds up. I cannot believe that a manually-actuated lever would require any more parts.

Then there are those who say "every wire complicates compliance testing, every automation complicates failure modes, every custom part complicates supply chain", and they are the ones that prefer in-house mechanical parts with conservative materials and tooling.

I think it's an age thing, maybe it's a hipster vs greasy-elbows-shop-floor guy thing, but honestly it can be hard to tell who's right.

When things go wrong, i.e in a crash, you still want to guarantee an undammaged door latching mechanism can still be operated independent of other parts of the car being damaged (likely). To satisfy this for a purely electrically actuated latch you would need a battery and independent controller in every door.

It's hard to beat the reliability of a mechanical latch and a human hand to satisfy that requirement.

Obviously I'm speaking generally and individuals vary greatly.

You mean the grommets and strain relief that are already present for windows/speakers/locks? In most cases it's probably not even additional wires as power and control (either can bus or lin bus) are already established from the door to bcm (body control module).

So using the electricity already present for the door handles has to be entirely tempting.

Is it?

Happy to be proven wrong since I'm far from an expert on FMVSS, but what I've seen specifies capabilities like ability to lock and amount of force it must endure, not the actual implementation (mechanical/electrical/etc).

Regardless the article only tells us the "emergency override mechanism did not work". Whether that is electrical or mechanical we can only guess (one would hope mechanical).

  FMVSS No. 206 does not directly regulate either interior or exterior door handles. It does, however, impliedly require both interior and exterior door handles or other release mechanisms in its regulation of door locks (see generally, 49 CFR 571.206, S4.1.3 and S4.4.2). 

I think there are also other implied requirements from other sections/directives, such as in crash safety that the doors are required to be locked while crashing, unlocked after a crash, can be opened but not unlatched and flopping. Meanwhile, electrical systems would be required not to pose hazards. I’m guessing those together are ruling out all but flap type manual handles, at least on front side doors.

0: https://www.nhtsa.gov/interpretations/24393rbm

1: p.23 https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/wp29/wp29regs/201...

I think they're trying to come off as futuristic, luxury, and exotic, and I guess that requires making things different for the sake of differentiation.

Perhaps it's also a bit of arrogance, thinking that they can make a better door handle than the old, stodgy automakers (and then finding out the hard way that sometimes things are the way they are for a reason).

On the other hand, I've noticed on my last few cars that the door handles sometimes feel like they're going to break if I pull too hard, like when the doors are frozen shut during freezing rain conditions. Maybe the traditional handles aren't that great either (though none have actually broken on me yet).

Take my money! That is exactly what I want. I want a basic car that does car stuff. Cut the networking. Cut the touchscreens. I want a car that starts and moves reliably with some basic comforts. I would pay more for a car without touchscreens. I would pay more for an electric car without bluetooth.

All the standard buttons and controls are there. The button to push the trunk, the child lock enable/disable, the mirror adjusts, the (electric) parking brake, you name it. Nothing that was a physical control on my previous cars has been touchscreened. The car even has a completely separate menu system, with a completely separate gauge-cluster LCD, for the "core" stuff. Not touch screen. Steering wheel buttons. That menu system isn't the greatest, but you also don't need it day to day.

So if you get a ... I'm not particularly Honda inclined, so I'd say, if you go for anything in the price range of Civic or vicinity, and made sure there's separate physical A/C knobs that aren't connected to the center screen, you should be able to just later install a 2035 Adobe CarPlayAuto 23.4 compliant head unit when the time comes, and keep the car just as you wish(dc I'm not a car manufacturer rep, dyor required).

It shares a platform with the ICE Niro, and aside from the charging port and obvious lack of exhaust pipe it doesn't look like an EV.

Give me a basic EV that looks like a normal car and I'd be happy.

TSLA: check out my yoke!

Why did this become a feature? My old Mini Cooper had this and I hated it. Passengers would pull on the area they were used to pulling on and often this is where the metal frame is, but in the absence of a frame they pull on the glass and it had a very concerning look to it.

Nissan Serena is not sold in the US

If you want a minivan where the doors can still be opened with no power, most of them can.

At least the Kia mentions non-power doors, so even if not available in the USA they're made somewhere for some market. If you really wanted to, you could probably import the parts and swap.

edit: replied before reading further down the thread, have replied more usefully further down.

Even with manual latches, people are advised to keep a hammer in the car to break a window if necessary.

I would pay extra for a car with those features! If only. Alas, your point stands, because there are (apparently) very few people like me.

And at the same time, height of the front hood - why haven’t regulators had anything to say with trucks having hoods well above the height of many pedestrians?