Featured Lexus Announces Manual Transmissions at the Kenshiki Forum

Well, nearly all the aftermarket and DIY EV conversions use cars with a manual transmission. Using the car's existing transmission lowered the costs. The manual was more efficient, and likely easier to get working with an electric motor.

 

But what about mpg in this system.

 

Yeah, but this isn't that.

This is a virtual manual transmission. You get to customize all the settings and change them whenever you feel like it. But it's just a control system feeding a single-speed EV drivetrain.

And honestly, that actually sounds really fun to work on- I bet the guys building it have had a blast. I get the distinct vibe that this is one of those things that is more fun to build than to own/operate later.

 

Buy ‘Grand Theft Auto’ or any other car game and get over it. Synthetic transmission is a fraud on everyone who touches it.

Bob Wilson

 

So not much different than a CVT with virtual gears.

That is disappointing. Multispeed transmissions do lead to better EV efficiency. Maybe even lower costs, by allowing smaller, cheaper motors.

 

It actually is quite different than a cvt mimicking the behavior of a stepped transmission by using virtual gears. In that case the engine rpm is changed and the droning some don't like with cvts is eliminated.

Here there is no different real difference as motor noise is already low and unobtrusive, and a single speed ev already is linear in response. It is trying to add a video game feature to the car.

Tesla found that it was less expensive to have more powerful motors and inverters than to have a two speed transmission. It was a design choice on the initial roadster that took some engineering back then. There is a disadvantage which is high speed acceleration, but few are going to need power to go from 70 mph to 150 mph. Porsche did design the taycan with a two speed, not for cost but for this acceleration. Tesla chose to have differently geared single speed transmissions on each axle on a awd vehicle with different motor characteristics (one for efficiency, one for higher power). On the semi they added a clutch to disengage the other motors for more efficiency and less drag.

This is a face lift not a redesign, they weren't going to change the transmission. If they really thought a 2 speed was better they would try it on their next ev, not this one, which was mainly designed to meet requirements of chinese regulators. They did add more battery, but chademo charging in europe shows they did not really do the work to make this a competive ev.