There's a lot to like here,
There's a lot to like here, but a few things worth questioning. We do, in fact, really need the equivalent of a Model T or old school VW bug for the EV age - and it sounds as it KleenSpeed's KAR could be a contender - but I think they should offer different sized battery packs. A fixed monthly rental rate of $175 on a big battery (on top of monthly purchase payments of the KAR itself for at least the first few years) would be a deal killer for much of the budget market this EV is supposed to appeal to.
What are these cars proposed to replace? Older gasoline subcompacts, no doubt. Gasoline would have to be around $8 per gallon for the $175 monthly battery rental to be even remotely attractive. I'd prefer to see a slightly higher MSRP ($15K to $17K, perhaps) on the vehicle and simply include a smaller battery. Some might find the rental of a bigger battery pack an attractive option, but not everyone.
Urban drivers who have never driven an EV think they need 150 miles on a single charge but, once you have actually lived with one under normal circumstances and gotten used to the concept of charging at home overnight, you realize that a range of 90 to 100 miles is more than sufficient. If you want a longer range EV, you probably also want more passenger and cargo space to go with it. There's a danger here of attempting to make the KAR all things to all people. KleenSpeed could also de-emphasize the racy performance specs and simply give us honest freeway on-ramp capabilities without the histrionics of having us all want to drag race a Tesla in our 4-door subcompacts.
This may also be too much to ask for in today's gadget-obsessed world, but I'll digress. Keep it simple!
What's with sending driving data back to some server? You don't need that for a vehicle that will mostly be used to make 5 mile commutes to work or trips to the grocery store. Just put a decent battery state-of-charge indicator on that touchscreen and be done with it.
I like the idea of the KAR. I just hope the developers actually give us an electric everyman's (and everywomen's) vehicle without making it overly complex and unnecessarily encumbered with gizmos that a budget car buyer could really live without. If they can do that, they really could give us the first real EV for well under $20K without rental add-ons.