>During my internship on automotive cost engineering, I quickly learned that motorized anything on a car costs and weighs leagues more than its mechanical-only

>During my internship on automotive cost engineering, I quickly learned that motorized anything on a car costs and weighs leagues more than its mechanical-only cousin. That is not true these days, eg electric windows are cheaper than manual, and electrically adjustable mirrors are cheaper than the mechanical remote mirrors. As a principle, electric actuation enables the componentry to be less robust, since the forces are lower and more predictable. Also, you can standardise electrical actuation across several models and lower the cost, whereas different designs may be needed for the manual option (windows are a good example here).