By now we are pretty clear that gearboxes are of little or no use in electric cars, right? Well, Lexus does not agree with this idea.At least when it comes to sports cars. The Lexus Electrified Sport, the electric successor to the LFA, will have a manual gearbox and it will not be the only model of the brand that offers this illogical but interesting gadget. Toyota’s premium firm wants its electric cars to be able to excite and this is how it intends to achieve it.
Though some brands are already flirting with the idea of using transmissions with different gear ratios in electric cars, the truth is that only cars like the Porsche Taycan/Audi e-tron GT and Rimac Nevera/Pininfarina Battista, in addition to the Jeep Wrangler Magneto prototype through a true manual transmission, have ventured into this idea. The possibilities in terms of improvement in performance and efficiency are there, but the truth is that the extra cost and complexity that they add does not justify the pyrrhic improvement.
This manual transmission will be tricky, but Lexus promises a driving experience as exciting as that of a sports car with a conventional engine and transmission.
That’s why at Lexus they are exploring another path, which is the one that focuses solely and exclusively on the driving experience. With the Lexus Electrified Sport they want to create a 100% electric successor to the legendary Lexus LFAputting in it not only the most avant-garde technology, but a new way of understanding electric propulsion. And it is that Lexus does not want to talk only about heart attack benefits, but wants its electric sports cars to offer something more, an aspect that differentiates them on a technical level, but also on a driving experience level.
And the result of this search is a manual change. Yes, Lexus confirmed to us during the past Kenshiki Forum 2022 that the electric successor to the Lexus LFA will have a manual gearbox. In fact, they are already working on this idea, even having a fully functional prototype based on a Lexus UX to refine such a peculiar gadget. This system does not use a mechanical transmission as such, but emulates the operation of a manual gearbox through a selector that replicates the typical interlocking of an H selector, relying on software to “generate” the different revolution jumps that exist between each ratio. Thus, depending on the speed, the position of the accelerator and the revolutions of the electric motor, the system will seek to create that sensation of changing gears.
Go ahead, this idea is pure artifice, being able to classify it openly as unnecessary. The Lexus Electrified Sport will be a very serious electric supercar considering that it promises a 0-100 km/h in less than 2 seconds and up to 700 km of autonomy thanks to the use of solid state batteries. However, Lexus knows well that The electrification of sports cars needs something more than performance, if it wants to generate that emotion that today is achieved with the sound of a good thermal engine or the feel of a manual gearbox..
