As far as creating multi-gear transmissions for electric vehicles go, only two automakers have succeeded with the Porsche Taycan and Audi E-Tron GT.
But it looks as though Toyota may be joining in the ranks, as revealed by patents filed by the company.
It appears that Toyota wants to implement a solution that looks rather like what you get when converting a combustion vehicle to electric, but the gearbox remains intact. Typically, these conversions leave the vehicle with a single gear, meaning the clutch is irrelevant.
The patent drawings and diagrams reveal that the system relies on a special controller which alters the torque of the electric motor, making it feel more combustion-like.
It also mentions a real clutch pedal that the driver can press to change gear by moving a physical shifter. However, these features are not essential to the running of the vehicle and are more about reproducing the feeling and fun of a manual transmission than actual function. They're referred to as ‘pseudo-shifter’ and ‘pseudo-clutch pedal’ in the text.
Read More
One of the patents reads:
"The controller of the electric vehicle is configured to control the torque of the electric motor using the MT vehicle model based on the operation amount of accelerator pedal, the operation amount of the pseudo-clutch pedal and the shift position of the pseudo-shifter used by the operation of the reaction force actuator.
The controller is configured to store shift reaction force characteristic simulating the characteristic of the shift reaction force according to the operation of the shifter. Then, the controller is configured to control the shift reaction force output by the shift reaction force generator according to the operation of the pseudo-shifter using the stored shift reaction force characteristic."
It sounds as though the so-called pseudo-shifter will physically move, similar to that in a Mazda MX-5 where every prod of the accelerator makes the shifter move and react in different ways. So perhaps Toyota is working on a future sporty offering. As we know, the Toyota CEO, Akio Toyoda, is an enthusiast and a keen driver and he's promised to add more exciting models to Toyota's lineup.