Driving Toyota’s EV Faux-Manual Transmission Simulator

The manual transmission has all but faded into obscurity here in America, and the transition to electric vehicles devoid of multi-speed gearboxes at all promises to (eventually) put a final nail in the coffin. There is a glimmer of hope, however, coming from Toyota. After filing a patent for a manual transmission simulator for EVs, the Japanese carmaker let us briefly drive the test mule at its Shimoyama R&D Center outside Toyota City, Japan. Yes, it’s completely superfluous. It’s also one the most amusing things we’ve ever done in an EV.

Both the shifter and clutch pedal in the UX300e test vehicle are dummies, connected only to electrical wires that tell the computer what they’re doing. The clutch pedal’s resistance only comes from a return spring, while a simple potentiometer reads its arc of travel.

To operate this proof of concept, you start with the car on and choose D from a rotary dial grafted onto the center console. Then, with the brake on, gear selector in neutral, and clutch out, you press the engine start button just behind the manual stick. The speakers burble with a simulated engine coming to life, and the tachometer stuck on the dashboard ticks up to idle speed.