To be clear, a manual transmission on an electric car would serve absolutely no purpose. It would be just for fun, an add-on for people who like shifting gears in their gasoline-powered cars. Toyota, long skeptical of electric vehicles, has been planning a more aggressive push into the sector. That will mean finding ways to appeal to all sorts of consumers. A feature like this could help lure holdouts who aren’t attracted to an electric vehicle’s usual smoothness and simplicity.
Since not all cars with manual transmissions are the same – they have different engines and different transmissions with different numbers of gears – the central computer would be programmed to imitate a specific sort of manual transmission car. To complete the experience, the driver will have a clutch pedal in addition to the usual brake and accelerator. Drivers will even be able to “downshift,” a process also known as engine braking.