In addition to noise and mechanical sensations, the pleasure of driving a thermal car could also sometimes go through the manual gearbox. Toyota has taken up the case and is currently working on patents specifically developed for electric vehicles.
A gear lever and a clutch pedal to accompany an electric motor: we didn’t see it coming. It was hard to imagine a mass-produced model benefiting from such technology. Besides, what for? Let’s stop questioning right away, it wouldn’t be a real manual transmission. Users have recently spotted the filing of a few patents in the United States by the Toyota group. The latter imagines the creation of a mechanical gearbox/dummy clutch assembly which would behave like a conventional control, but only in appearance. A counter-current innovation because the proportion of vehicles with automatic transmission continues to grow. In France in 2021, more than one in two new cars was driven with only two pedals, and several sports brands, such as Ferrari or Lamborghini, have banned the clutch pedal from their production.
A working tachometer
The system concocted by Toyota is obviously based on electronic management. This would simulate the gear change by creating a voluntary break in torque, thus causing the engine speed to drop. As during a classic gear shift in short. The feeling of having several gears to fall into, even if they would be fictitious as is already the case on the eCVT transmissions of some hy modelsflanges, would fulfill this quest for realism even more. Just like a falsely mechanical resistance of the clutch pedal and the presence of a tachometer to display this temporary loss of torque, via the reduction in revolutions per minute. As a bonus, if you don’t want to bother with the clutch, it would also be possible to drive without, just by manipulating the lever. In short, the best of both worlds. At Toyota, the idea is in any case not new since the brand presented the concept in 2017 GR HV Sports based on a GT86, equipped with hybrid mechanics and an automatic gearbox that could be driven with an H-shaped grid!
A truly viable system?
Toyota knows how to design good manual transmissions. The GR Yaris is proof of that! But from there to entering the market to fill such a particular need, there is still a long way to go. Many patents are filed each year to protect an idea without necessarily leading to industrialization. Currently, the Porsche Taycan is one of the only 100% electric models to benefit from a two-speed automatic transmission, along with its Audi e-Tron GT cousin. The others are content with a fixed gear ratio, which is sufficient in most situations. Manual transmissions are the only prerogative of the models retrofitted : the Peugeot 504 Retrofuture that we had been able to try retained its own for reasons of authenticity, even if it was useless to play the lever. It remains to be seen what Toyota will do with this technology. In the meantime, the Japanese manufacturer has other priorities, such as the upcoming marketing of its first 100% electric model this year, the bZ4X.
TO READ. Toyota bZ4X: our opinion on board the electric family SUV
