Toyota Files Patent For New Manual Transmission For Electric Vehicles

An electric car does not actually need a manual transmission. Even those with multi-gear transmissions as we know them, like the two-speed Porsche Taycan Turbo S, do so only to provide split options between lower-speed performance and higher-speed efficiency. This reality leaves manual transmissions in danger of disappearing with the internal combustion engine, but the loss of one of the most engaging and visceral elements of controlling a car would make driving as a whole worse. Toyota may have a solution.

In their patent filing, Toyota basically created a traditional clutch-activated manual transmission with a familiar shift lever as you’d find on a GR86. In Toyota’s patent filing they explain, “The controller of the electric vehicle is configured to control the torque of the electric motor using the MT vehicle model based on the operation amount of the accelerator pedal, the operation amount of the pseudo-clutch pedal, and the shift position of the pseudo-shifter.”

Attached to the shifter is a similar “reaction force actuator,” which presumably lightens when the “pseudo-clutch” pedal is depressed but continues to provide resistance like a shifter attached to an actual transmission. Based on the position of this shifter and the above pedal, the powertrain control module varies output, in part based on simulated engine RPM, which are shown on a tachometer. Brought to too low a simulated RPM, the electric motor will even simulate the car stalling.

There is no clear practical application for this technology. The goal seems to be to simply emulate the physical feeling of driving a manual car by directly sacrificing the main performance advantage of an electric car over an internal combustion competitor.

• Also See: 5 Things You Shouldn’t Do When Driving A Manual Transmission Car