Toyota Is Making an All-Electric Sports Car That Will Come With a Stick Shift
Toyota doesn’t think electrification has to come at the cost of what makes driving fun.
The Japanese auto giant is hard at work on a battery-powered sports car that sounds like it might be able to win over some EV-resistant enthusiasts, according to Road & Track. That’s because the car will likely have a manual transmission available as an option.
Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda revealed before last week’s 100th anniversary 24 Hours of Le Mans that his company’s GR performance sub-brand is developing a performance EV. Any new model from the division is worth getting excited about, but the car sounds like it will have two completely unnecessary features that should be of interest to enthusiasts—realistic simulated engine noises and a manual gearbox.
Toyoda, a known enthusiast himself, said he has driven the prototype and noted the sound of its “engine noise,” according to the magazine. Toyota is far from the first automaker to include the feature with a battery-powered model—Dodge is doing everything it can to make sure the electric Daytona SRT sounds like a gas-guzzler—but it would be the first to put a manual gearbox into one. Toyoda said the in-development EV won’t just have a stick shift, either; it will have “clutches too.”
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“Toyota is testing this technology, but no decision about bringing it to market has been made at this time,” a representative for the automaker told Robb Report on Friday.
Toyoda’s comments come at the same time that Toyota engineers in Japan announced the automaker will start offering manuals for its EVs starting in 2026. This doesn’t come as a complete shock, as the company has been known to be working on the technology for over a year now. British auto publication Evo even test-drove a working prototype of an electric Lexus crossover with a stick shift. In a video posted online by the magazine, you can see a driver shifting through the gears just as they would driving a traditional, gas-powered vehicle. The system, which included a clutch, was able to so closely mimic the experience of driving a manual that it could even stall.
Lexus is developing a manual transmission for electric cars, and here's a first look at a working prototype. Is this the future of the driver's car? https://t.co/sUIaspEpeO pic.twitter.com/aaTUBz6qGg
— evo magazine (@evomagazine) December 5, 2022
As has been covered here before, EVs do not need multi-gear manual transmissions. Unlike an internal-combustion engine, which has a narrow RPM range at which it can operate efficiently, an electric motor has a much wider optimal range that requires just a single gear. Toyota’s stick shift is there just so drivers can experience shifting through the gears themselves. It shows the company believes this specific sensation, along with the sound of a roaring power train, are still vital parts of the driving experience.
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