I don’t get this kind of stuff at all. And this is coming from someone who drives a manual transmission car. Electric cars don’t need transmissions, why would I want to pretend to shift gears? It’s like the fake engine noise. Very silly.
Nissan did this a while ago in response to customer complaints. People were complaining about the lack of power and acceleration in cars with CVTs, so instead of actually fixing the problem, Nissan introduced programming in their car that simulates shifting. When you get on the freeway and floor the accelerator to get up.to speed, the revs will go up to about 5 or 6k and then will “downshift” to 2-3k while “shifting” through gears. Anybody that knows what a CVT actually is knows there are no gears to shift and acceleration should be happening at a constant engine RPM.
Basically, people are too dumb to realize they bought a horrendously underpowered shitbox, so Nissan gave those people the equivalent of visual cues and some engine noises to make them feel better about it.
You have to imagine the people who made this do engine noises while they drive
My cat makes little vroom noises when he gets the zoomies.
I once saw a concept car for an EV at a trade fair and their selling point was that it had a sound system to realistically emulate engine noises. You could even pick among 50 or so cars it could emulate. As far as I remember the noises were only played inside.
Our kids kids will just be like “oh yeah, car noise. I heard in a history thing why they sound like that”
Sorry but I think having presets is better. My MG4 (lower end of the EVs) has one “sport” preset and you can fell the difference with the normal preset.
It if is a toggle feature, fine. But I kind of dont see the point. Like, I daily-drive stick shift but when I had automatic, the best fucking part was that it would speed up seamlessly and smoothly with a nice even motor sound. No jiggling, chugging or anything. Just a smooth easy ride. Why would anyone want stick shift in an automatic? Bemuses me.
Porsches are drivers’ cars. They’re mostly not about smoothness and “making sense to own”.
They WERE drivers cars. Real Porsche clubs avoid the modern cars.
A toggle would be good.
Cars with automatic gears are more efficient than manual ones. I fear a fake manual gear system would decrease efficiency, so it may be best to disable it.
But why? I drive an EV and it’s way better than a manual (I’m getting too old for that crap), and nothing like an automatic.
Plus putting your foot down in an EV and letting it rip is like nothing else, gears would ruin that fun.
Is it practical? No. Is it less efficient? Yes. Is it fun? Apparently yes! Assuming Porsche will have a similar implementation it’s more than just noise, it actually simulates a torque curve as you go through the gears.
Exactly people are getting all bent out of shape for something clearly not designed for them. There are already so many boring efficiency focused evs already on the market, let those of us who want a fun engaging car to drive get in on the EV fun as well 😀
It can probably be disabled and is probably mostly a fake noise thing.
As someone who owned CVTs with and without fake gears and EVs: gear shifts quickly become awful after you’ve lived without them for a while.
As someone who likes drivers cars and manual engagement when driving that got an automatic so I can let others drive my car, I miss gear shifts sooo much. Seeing EVs replicate a feature that made driving engaging and fun is awesome and shows people who want engaging cars that EVs can be just as fun as an ice car all while being more ecologically friendly. You clearly arent the target market here and thats ok
While shifting might have been engaging for you I don’t believe that’s a blanket statement for everyone. Personally, I like the linear acceleration that EVs have and the feeling it brings. I ride in gas cars now and practically everything feels like a lesser drive. Conversely, I have a 2024 CVT Mitsubishi Mirage with 75 horsepower and a few suspension upgrades and it absolutely rules in the turns. 2000 lb car. Again shifting is not important to me, judy the feeling of taking the turn just right.
I think anybody who still feels that EVs are not engaging or shifting is somehow better hasn’t driven any EV very far.
While shifting might have been engaging for you I don’t believe that’s a blanket statement for everyone.
I never said it was a blanket statement though, just that there are a lot of people LIKE me who find getting the gear selection right to take a turn optimally, or choose the right shift points to get optimal acceleration for that cars gear ratio to be rewarding and engaging. There is a challenge to that which gives immediate feedback and its fun.
Personally, I like the linear acceleration that EVs have and the feeling it brings.
And im glad thats what you like, its awesome when you find what you like rewarding from driving! Just know almost all these shift features are toggles due to them being software based. I.e you can get a ioniq 5n as a drivers car and if you dont prefer dealing with shift points or the sounds you never have to turn that mode on, it will be easy to drive with linear acceleration and give you the engagement you enjoy from driving, for those of us who find timing our shifts and gear selection to get those balanced and fun turns with more room for error we can enable the shift mode and enjoy our preference.
You see having these modes does not detract from your enjoyment at all and just allows others to enjoy themselves as well.
im only down for this only if they give is the same 20+ gears they had in the Fast and the Furious movies.
or every racing movie…he’s going to lose…oh wait, he has six more gears and he forgot to use the gas pedal!!
or every racing movie
Ehm, no, it’s actually every movie that has a car engine sound.
Flat road with constant speed?
Jup, periodic constant upshifting.They are going supersonic.
And don’t forget all the reverse gears
It’s infinite gears. You upshift and the simulated revs drop then roar up again, even if you’re not accelerating. Then it does it every time you shift until you get bored.
This is idiotic.
I can imagine a world where paddle shifters control throttle and regen behavior. Like “downshifting” from a gentle lift and coast to heavy regen-braking in steps, same with “upshifting” from max torque to gentle eco-mode. Would make EVs even more amazing for people like me actually.
But this, this is stupid.
This is idiotic.
So im guessing you dont like a drivers car which is what porsche’s market is catered too. If you dont like that its completely fine. But for people like me who enjoy manual cars and having something thats engaging to drive give me an ev that simulates ice vehicle dynamics any day. Seeing this means more people who bought ice cars because they were more engaging for track days might be buying evs in the future. That means less noise pollution near race tracks and a more ecologically friendly motor sport. Calling this idiotic is just a bad take, you’re clearly not the market for a drivers car and that fine but dont act like there arent others out there who are waiting for things like this. I like that the ionic 5n does this behavior and seeing more performance cars take this approach means hopefully a shift in a sport I enjoy but is not ecologically friendly might become more so in the future. Plus I can have all the pops and bangs of an ice engine in my car without having to bother anyone outside it :D
I think you haven’t understood my message, and probably not the article itself.
What Porsche does is simulate the behavior of a torque converter automatic transmission. The opposite of a “drivers car” as you put it.
What I’m suggesting is the opposite. Use paddle shifters to alter acceleration and regen torque in a way that’s similar to a sequential or semi-auto transmission. “Downshift” to increase regen (engine breaking) and accel torque, just like downshifting in a petrol car. “Upshift” to reduce them. With the added benefit of zero emissions and the ability to stay in whichever “gear mode” you want.
FWIW I’ve driven manuals for 20 years and although my latest car is a hybrid and the next will be electric, I still “drive” manual in sim racing.
I absolutely love driving my car, a manual VW GTI, which is pretty much a “driver’s car” and I think it’s dumb, too. If people like it then that’s cool, but not for me.
I don’t understand why automakers tie regenerative braking to the accelerator. Just put down a third pedal, its not like anyone would ever need to accelerate and regen at the same time.
One pedal driving is super convenient in traffic. On longer drives it works with cruise control just like any other car.
For looong country drives it would be nice to have some sort of automatic cruise control: feet off the pedals and the speed is constant, accelerator for faster & brake for slower.
it’s just a fun gimmick to make it feel more interesting to drive you don’t have to enjoy it lol but plenty of people will like it
the last generation of honda insight had paddle shifters to control regen. however “downshifting” to get more regen is slower than just leaving it on the max regen. so the only time it’s fun to use is when timing out a perfect stop at a red light which i don’t think is porsche’s intention with their fake shifting.
As stupid as calling an EV “Turbo”?
Porsche lost the plot a long time ago.
Porsche hasn’t lost the plot - they build this stuff intentionally because they know idiots will buy it. It pads their bottom line and lets them continue to make the higher end 911s.
My first PC had a Turbo button.
Its purpose was to make the CPU slower.I hope someday someone is dumb enough to create a V8 EV…
Porsche making its cars deliberately slower and less convenient. Stupid stupid stupid.
I guess some people really like leaving some performance on the table
You don’t buy a manual car because it’s faster.
You buy it because it’s more fun.
You don’t buy a manual car because it’s faster.
Nowadays no, but back a few (alright many) years ago, manuals were both quicker AND more fuel efficient. Drivetrain losses in autos were bad, and the better gearing and more gears in manual vs auto meant they were quicker off the mark and could cruise at an optimal rpm with better efficiency.
I mean you do buy it because its more controllable on the track than an automatic, which in turn means faster lap times. But for public roads yeah you get them for the fun and engagment they give you not for speed.
Manual shifting is slower than automatic. Racing would use automatic shifting if it were allowed.
DSGs are for racing, that’s why F1 uses them. They shift about as fast as you can blink, and are used in some road cars as automatics.
I am familiar with dsgs but they are mechanically more akin to a manual transmission than your traditional automatic. Its semantics but a DSG is a dual clutch transmission, i.e its an electronicly controlled manual transmission with 2 sets of clutchs for the even and odd gears which gives them there performance verus your traditional automatic which uses a torque converter that sequentially moves through the gears with more power train loss and lag.
But in a manual car you’re the reason why it’s slower.
In an EV (or CVT) dumb programming is why it’s slower.
You need dumb programming to counter dumber drivers
It’s still more fun with the shift points.
Spinning is so much cooler than not spinning.
I have to upvote a Stargate reference in the wild.
As a manual car owner and sincere enjoyer: it’s utterly stupid to simulate a transmission’s acceleration behavior in an electric car. It’s entirely artificial and synthetic, and not only irrelevant and unconnected to the mechanics of the drivetrain in anything more than a cosmetic sense, but also a detriment to performance. This is simulating how it feels to drive a car with a PDK in it, and some paddles. That’s it. It’s even more stupid than the flappy paddles and faked gearing they put into Subaru’s CVTs - that at least has an auditory component as a justification.
Hyundai did this with the Ioniq-N. They faked the noise, vibration, even a rev limiter.
Where this is going: Electric cars blended with driving simulators.
Maybe public transportation will really take off once everyone on board gets a VR headset with a driving simulator.
Commute to work on an empty Swiss mountain road in a Ferrari.I mean what the ioniq did was awesome, I wish more evs had a performance version like that which catered to people who want fun cars to drive. I like the noises and dynamics from ice engines being able to replicate that while being more ecologically friendly and not annoying people outside my car with an obnoxiously load exhaust is such a big win in my book.
But it’s all fake. Umberto Ecco wrote a book about the American obsession with second best and fake experiences like the fake Eiffel tower in Vegas and fake Venice in Venice CA.
But it’s all fake.
And all video games are fake, all non fiction movies and books, fake. Just because its fake doesnt mean it cant be enjoyable. I love sim racing in VR, its all fake virtual representations of some thing real, that doesnt take away the enjoyment from it.
Umberto Ecco wrote a book about the American obsession with second best and fake experiences like the fake Eiffel tower in Vegas and fake Venice in Venice CA.
People enjoy museums that display recreations of the “real thing” because some people cant afford or dont have the luxury to see the real thing. That doesnt detract from the experience. Planetariums arent just as US thing and people enjoy them across the world even if you are seeing fake visualizations of the galaxy. How is that any different?
Motorcycle are more fun and cheaper.
And deadlier
Another reason to convince Porsche drivers to try them out!
buses are safer.
Isn’t that part of the fun?
Manuals can still be faster if you know you’re about to put your foot down, and you’re in the cheaper end of the market.
Edit: I should have specified while already driving e.g. overtaking or accelerating out of a roundabout.
Corvette proved that wrong with the C8. They refuse to offer the manual option because so many Boomers blew up their clutches on previous models.
As someone that dailys a manual and has previously daily’ed a Dual Clutch “EcoShift” Veloster, manual is not faster even if you prep your downshift ahead of time.
Porches are not typically on that end honestly.
I would love this. I hate driving in general because traffic fucking sucks, but if i do have to drive, let me have an engaging experience. Shitfing is the only fun thing about driving
Clearly not for the typical “i commute a bazillion hours every day” people kind of feature.
This isn’t letting you control when the “shifting” happens. It’s just cutting the power for a small period at preset speeds like an automatic transmission ICE.
I haven’t read the article tbh, i just clearly understand where the desire for it comes from. Also, what you describe seems to fit well for what “weird people who like shifting” want?
I was just surprised how many comments here were very much against even the idea of having to shift again
So mime shifts and make brrm brrm noises. Same thing.
Yes pls
I drive an ancient (2012) EV.
I’m content with a stick shift, but the functions I want are:
- reverse
- neutral (coast without regen, allow car to be towed, only mechanical brakes)
- regenerative brake level 1
- level 2
- level 3
…and that’s all, and I have them. I don’t need acceleration performance to change, much safer to have it always consistent. It’s the default braking performance I need to alter, because sometimes you go downhill and sometimes it’s icy.
They’re electronic, no mechanical pushrods needed, but my car’s manufacturer, in the dark dawn of electric vehicles, could not understand that and used mechanical pushrods. :D
A function that is mechanical and which I would like to remove from my car’s gear stick and place under a separate switch is the “gear lock” function. It’s like a parking brake without engaging brake pads. It’s useful, but having it under the stick creates a nozero possibility of engaging it in motion - it shouldn’t be there, but under a protective cover or protective circuit, elsewhere.
For the gear lock, You might find it has an interlock and can’t be engaged above a certain speed.
I honestly have no idea about evs but as a crane technician interlocks (system reads x state before allowing you to happen) prevent all kinds of accidental applications of certain systems.
For instance a franna has a switch on the dash from high to low range, even if you press this switch at 80kmh until the transmission registers a speed below 2kmh it will not allow that to happen.
Yep, that’s how it should be.
In reality, I’ve been able to engage gear lock at a low speed. Whatever interlock they (Mitsubishi) have built - ain’t 100% foolproof.
Car people vs. normal people lol
As an infrequent driver I really enjoy not needing to shift
They know that male Porsche owners will only play with this type of stick with a big knob on top.
Ahem, the knob is in the driver’s seat.
you mean a 3/4 scale model of that.
This is a fucking weird thing to do but even weirder for people to get worked up about.
It’s been happening with CVT cars for years and if you don’t like it all you need do is not turn it on.
Or, because this is the internet and that is a Porche, you do nothing at all because none of you will buy one anyway.
So lame.
