Toyota is contemplating faux engine sounds and a handbook transmission for a future electrical sports activities automobile, chairman Akio Toyoda mentioned in a current interview with Autocar. The goal is to copy the total expertise of a gasoline automobile—together with a few of the less-fun elements.
Toyoda, who just lately stepped down as CEO and is the grandson of the the automaker’s founder, mentioned the sports activities automobile will drive and sound identical to a combustion-engine automobile—with out the scent of gasoline.
“You’ll be able to really hear the engine noises,” Toyoda mentioned, including that “there may be additionally a handbook transmission and a clutch pedal.”
2023 Toyota Supra
The handbook gearbox and clutch will not be related on to the driveline, Toyota chief engineer Takashi Watanabe mentioned in the identical article. As an alternative, the automobile will simulate shifts and regulate torque, to the purpose the place it may even be programmed to let a automobile roll again on hills—and even stall.
With a handful of exceptions, EVs do not have (or want) multi-speed transmissions of any type. They might even damage effectivity. However Toyoda is an enormous proponent of driver involvement, and handbook gearboxes in efficiency EVs is perhaps one method to obtain that.
The promise of driver involvement would possibly clarify why there’s been a lot discuss of handbook transmissions for EVs. Toyota’s Lexus division introduced final 12 months that it was testing a software-based system to simulate handbook shifting. And several other suppliers, together with ZF, have made an attraction for multi-speed transmissions for EVs. Main engineers and R&D executives typically say it is not value it although.
2022 Toyota GR86
The thought of a Toyota electrical sports activities automobile is not new. The automaker mentioned it was engaged on one in 2012, and the concept of a handbook transmission was additionally talked about. In 2016, Toyoda took the lead of the firm’s electrical automobile operations. In 2021 Toyota teased ideas previewing a few of 30 new EVs globally by 2030, with a sports activities automobile amongst them.
Such a sports activities automobile would possibly make the most of the battery advances for the longer term outlined earlier this week—together with a solid-state battery due in 2027, with the potential for 10-minute fast-charging.
