Toyota has built an EV with a fake transmission, and we’ve driven it - eviltoast

It sounds bizarre but I want to try it.

  • BallShapedMan@lemmy.worldM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I don’t think I like it. No judgement for others but I don’t like cars with fake vents and I’m sure I won’t like cars with fake transmissions.

    I think there is value in a transmission in EVs. While they don’t really need under gears they do need overdrive to get better highway mileage. And I imagine if we put weaker engines we could use under gears to get the performance with less of a power drain.

    Some cars first gear is over 3:1 while others it’s closer to 2:1.

    • Voyajer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      You won’t gain anything meaningful from an overdrive with electric motors, they don’t need to be kept in a small rpm band to not lose efficiency

      • BallShapedMan@lemmy.worldM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        Overdrive puts the engine in a lower RPM band which would save the battery I feel like. Plus a few cars have em.

        • sparky1337@ttrpg.network
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Electric motors don’t like low rpm’s. You’ll end up using more battery as the torque requirement to move the taller gear set is higher.

          • BallShapedMan@lemmy.worldM
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            So a small high RPM motor that doesn’t have a lot of torque and needs higher gear ratios to make up for it but uses less electricity in trade is out?

            Seems silly to me.

            • sparky1337@ttrpg.network
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              So it’s just how electricity works. With an ICE engine you have a powerband, and the individual gears solve the issue of power and efficiency.

              CVTs also solve this issue by putting the ICE motor at peak rpm efficiency for the task. Eventually with an ICE motor the rpm’s can only go so low or else you’ll lug the motor introducing extra heat and pressure that will blow it up.

              Back to electric, what happens when you turn a switch on in a room to power a light or fan? Why are fan settings 0-3-2-1 and not 0-1-2-3?

              It’s because motors are designed to come on at full power to overcome mass. If you were to introduce a taller gear set like an ICE motor, even at higher speed, you’re introducing the motor to higher resistance than the voltage can overcome so it puts extra stress on the electric motor which in turn increases the amperage.

              This will consume more power, and create excess heat, thus lowering efficiency. Not to mention the vehicle has to overcome drag and air resistance and the extra weight of this new drivetrain on an already heavy vehicle.

              Now, that’s not to say it isn’t impossible or impractical, but there’s no real efficiency to be gained since electric motors maintain same or similar efficiency across all ranges.

              • BallShapedMan@lemmy.worldM
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                That all makes sense except why do some EVs have real gears? I feel like Porsche probably knows what they’re doing when they put one in theirs.

                • sparky1337@ttrpg.network
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Theirs unfortunately has no efficiency benefit. There’s two motors in the taycan, front and back.

                  Front motor is single speed, and once the car hits 62mph it shifts to second in the rear motor only.

                  The taycan is all about being fast, not efficient.

                  • BallShapedMan@lemmy.worldM
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Maybe that’s the use for a transmission then? Like CPU cores, efficiency cores and performance cores? Dunno, not an expert here. I do think what we think now is unlikely to be what we think as the technology matures and gets reinvented.

      • schmidtster@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        Fords been doing it for a long time already, emulate engine noise through the speakers to make it sound peppier.

        • smoothbrain coldtakes@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          They also put plastic tubing and piping to direct the exhaust in the noisiest way possible. I remember when I heard they were doing the sound thing it was in conjunction with a plastic motor component that was effectively shaped like a saxophone that was supposed to produce a superior engine sound.

      • BallShapedMan@lemmy.worldM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I hate that too!

        I’ve seen a few gas cars that do that and videos that talk about how to disable it. I feel like I’d rather just a better exhaust. My car has a variable exhaust that overrides my choice at lower speeds and it annoys me.

      • loobkoob@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        Fake engine noise is important for safety reasons. If people can’t hear cars, there are far more incidents. A lot of time and effort has gone into sound design for electric vehicles so people can hear when they’re accelerating, slowing down, etc.

        • theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          1 year ago

          The systems they’re talking about are sounds played over the stereo for people inside the car to think the engine is louder/sportier than it is. Pedestrians don’t hear it at all. I unplugged mine at the dealer before I ever turned the car on and have never been disappointed by the actual sound of the engine.

          • schmidtster@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            There is a small use case. If the vehicle was so well insulated you couldn’t hear the engine from inside, being able to hear the engine rev up and down would be beneficial for the driver.

            • theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              That is not the case with my car. It is already legitimately sporty and the engine makes plenty of noise. Ford just decided to “enhance” it.