Actually, the need is not there at all. Still, Honda has developed a manual transmission for future electric cars. The question then is whether the Japanese will use it.
Honda has developed a manual gearbox – complete with gear lever and clutch pedal – for its upcoming electric cars. However, the system is software-based and is therefore content with simulating the feeling of gear shifting.
There is therefore no mechanical release as we know it from cars with a combustion engine and manual transmission.
This is what a Honda engineer tells the media The Drive during a test carousel of a prototype from Honda's upcoming 0 series of electric cars.
However, the engineer would neither confirm nor deny whether the simulated manual transmission is something Honda intends to do seriously in series production.
Electric motors deliver full torque from zero revs, and electric cars therefore do not need gearboxes with multiple gears like petrol and diesel cars. For the same reason, most electric cars make do with a gearbox that has one forward gear and reverse gear. Although Porsche has actually equipped their Taycan with two gears.
However, a manual gearbox, in the style of the one Honda has developed, can make driving an electric car a more involved experience. Electric cars are generally criticized for being both monotonous and boring.
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Toyota has also developed a manual gearbox for electric cars and plans to put it into production. Toyota's release, which will also be used in Lexus cars, also simulates gear changes
Hyundai has already introduced software that simulates gear changes in the performance model Ioniq 5 N. But the brand has not developed a clutch pedal for the system. In the Ioniq 5 N, the software simulates gear changes from an 8-speed dual-clutch gearbox.
Not everyone is enthusiastic about such systems. For example, Porsche has investigated the possibility of simulating the gear change in electric cars. But in Zuffenhausen they have chosen to say no thanks. Alpine says the same. Read more about it here .
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