It sounds bizarre but I want to try it.
I don’t think I like it. No judgement for others but I don’t like cars with fake vents and I’m sure I won’t like cars with fake transmissions.
I think there is value in a transmission in EVs. While they don’t really need under gears they do need overdrive to get better highway mileage. And I imagine if we put weaker engines we could use under gears to get the performance with less of a power drain.
Some cars first gear is over 3:1 while others it’s closer to 2:1.
Fords been doing it for a long time already, emulate engine noise through the speakers to make it sound peppier.
They also put plastic tubing and piping to direct the exhaust in the noisiest way possible. I remember when I heard they were doing the sound thing it was in conjunction with a plastic motor component that was effectively shaped like a saxophone that was supposed to produce a superior engine sound.
Fake engine noise is important for safety reasons. If people can’t hear cars, there are far more incidents. A lot of time and effort has gone into sound design for electric vehicles so people can hear when they’re accelerating, slowing down, etc.
The systems they’re talking about are sounds played over the stereo for people inside the car to think the engine is louder/sportier than it is. Pedestrians don’t hear it at all. I unplugged mine at the dealer before I ever turned the car on and have never been disappointed by the actual sound of the engine.
You won’t gain anything meaningful from an overdrive with electric motors, they don’t need to be kept in a small rpm band to not lose efficiency
Overdrive puts the engine in a lower RPM band which would save the battery I feel like. Plus a few cars have em.
Electric motors don’t like low rpm’s. You’ll end up using more battery as the torque requirement to move the taller gear set is higher.
Porsche Taycan has a two speed gearbox, primarily so it can cruise at autobahn speeds without impacting acceleration. Efficiency benefits only work if the extra weight of the gearbox and transmission losses aren’t more than the range gained .
https://www.wired.com/story/electric-car-two-speed-transmission-gearbox/
So its cosplay for cars? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
All the work and effort needed to eek out the most performance from an ICE car is an understandable act. For purists that don’t mind the effort they can achieve something that most can’t in ICE. For those that can’t we just watch and appreciate their talents.
However for EV none of that is necessary and in fact introducing manual “rev limits” or limitations or speed or performance at certain vehicle speeds to simulate the shortcomings of an ICE car (with a narrow power band that defines the limit of the technology) is the opposite of “extra effort for extra performance”. Its “reduced performance for extra effort”. Its making a thing look and act like another thing purely for cosmetic reasons.
I have no problem if people want to do this or buy vehicles that have this, but its not something I’m interested in.
I’m sure production will make manual mode just a mode, same as shift mode in automatics (including cvt). Some people just enjoy it. I have a mild sports car and a shitty mini truck. I have a “beginner” motorcycle and a rocketing sport bike. The sport bike and sport car check boxes for performing well, but the baby bike and shitty mini truck are a blast to row through the gears on in double-digit speeds and half the gas. For all intents and purposes I’m pretending those two are race vehicles while being far from it with their US-highway shortcomings.
Besides, this is one step closer to the skateboard chassis dream. One base platform with swappable bodies. Could be an auto 7-seat fwd wagon on monday, an auto 3-seat cabover pickup on Thursday, and a manual 2-seat rwd roadster on Saturday.
The sport bike and sport car check boxes for performing well, but the baby bike and shitty mini truck are a blast to row through the gears on in double-digit speeds and half the gas. For all intents and purposes I’m pretending those two are race vehicles while being far from it with their US-highway shortcomings.
But there’s purpose to moving through the gears on the baby bike and shitty mini truck: You’re extracting the most performance from the hardware.
Imagine for a moment you could still do that on those vehicles but that the performance would be worse if you do. Would you still do it?
Not OP, but yes
The act of shifting and the way that it influences the way the car/bike reacts is an integral part of the driving experience. There’s no fun in just pressing a go pedal with no input.
Maybe it would be more engaging to drive, but it’s just more expense and more to go wrong.
I could see this being very useful, as electric motors are usually less efficient at higher speed and they generate more heat (more cooling required). So using a transmission that enables lower motor rpm at highway speeds could potentially mean longer highway range, if the transmission is light and efficient enough of course
Except that it doesn’t. The actual gear ratio is determined by the software for optimal performance and the shifting merely controls the car audio system and modulates the electric motors to jolt or regeneratively brake to simulate the drag of a physical transmission box. If anything, the motors will be acting in a non-efficient way to simulate the effects of non-optimal manual transmission hijinks, as tested by the author (much to his enjoyment).
Personally, I disabled the “V8 sound” Ford stupidly pipes into the cab of its V6 trucks. I bought the thing because the cab is so quite, not so I could get fake engine noise to make my penis appear larger. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just not the experience I’m looking for in an automobile. To each his or her own. More than 99% of the time I want a vehicle where I put in the destination and then ignore it for the rest of my trip. I get the appeal - I learned on a stick and I’m cheap enough that I rent manual cars overseas - I just don’t share the need for it; at least not enough to pay extra to have it as a cosmetic add on.
Lol pumping in the V8 sound into a vehicle without one is a thing?
What kind of insecure person would use this “feature?”
“Damn, Tony, that thing got a V8?”
“Nope but it sure sounds like it!”
The reviewer in this article would be one of those people. He got excited by the sound of revving the engine and hearing the result of shifting gears - and he knew it was just an audio effects track. But, also, have you seen (or listened to) men (it’s always men) who drone on about their V8 full size pick up trucks? It’s absolutely a thing. Don’t get me wrong - I like the look of my truck - but I’d be just as happy with an electric F150 that threw a flat 600 ft-lbs of torque and was dead silent. I just want the acceleration and cargo capacity on mountain interstates.
So many people who either didn’t read the article, or didn’t understand it.
Perhaps but this is a fake transmission. Basically an engine & manual transmission simulator.
I admire the execution and no doubt it is more fun than being without. It seems weird and impractical too. For now I have a car with a manual trans but maybe one day I will be glad for having such an option in an EV. Or maybe I will think it is silly. I’m kind of confused in the feelings department right now lol.