Lexus hopes to offer this option to its customers in the future. Does it make any sense?
Nowadays, fewer and fewer cars offer the option of a manual gearbox, and the vast majority are only offered with an automatic gearbox.
In electric cars, due to their characteristics of not having several gears, except for some exceptions such as the Porsche Taycan which has 2, automatic gearboxes are an intrinsic part of this type of vehicle.
However, there are many drivers who love driving with a manual gearbox, as the experience of control and fun is greater, which is why Lexus is working on the development of a manual gearbox for its electric cars.
It’s not really a conventional manual gearbox that Lexus is working on, but more of a virtual system that simulates the feeling of driving a stick shift.
This system is very reminiscent of the gear changes found in racing game simulators, and the aim is to simulate that feeling.
Lexus is trying to make it as real as possible and therefore plays with the electronics and software of the vehicle to make the car “rev” more or less depending on the gear we have engaged.
Here is a video showing how it works.
The question in all this is whether it makes sense to spend time developing this simulation rather than focusing on other more critical parts of a vehicle such as fuel efficiency. We’ll have to wait and see whether or not this option is finally commercialised.
What do you think, does it make sense?
The original text of this article has been extracted from this link. Thanks.