In February this year, Toyota applied for a brand new energy vehicle patent. This patent mainly simulates the manual shifting and other exclusive functions of gasoline vehicles on electric vehicles, thus adding a touch of fun and reason to purchase electric vehicles for gasoline vehicle enthusiasts.
Although completely incomprehensible to most users, Toyota has made this patent a reality, and it is only available in luxury models, such as the Lexus Electrified Sports.
Lexus Electrified chief engineer Takashi Watanabe described it as “a simulated drive force unit with pedal and shift positions to reproduce the experience of a manual transmission.”
Judging from the demonstration video he gave, the shifter on this car (the prototype is based on the Lexus UX300e) is so realistic that the driver even faces the possibility of the car stalling or slipping backward when starting on a half-slope.
Watanabe said: “This new project was proposed by some Lexus engineers who summed up the advantages of conventional gasoline vehicles and the disadvantages of electric vehicles” and finally found that “they especially liked manual transmissions.”
Watanabe emphasized that the prototype is “very interesting” and that the project is currently being developed in earnest, possibly for future pure electric vehicles. From the video, you can see that when the driver shifts gears, the hand-held camera even shakes slightly, which confirms that its performance is no different from that of a manual transmission car, which is simply an eye-opener for users.
