The company wants its EVs to be fun, but executives aren't sold on fake shifting.
HondaHonda, famed for its slick-shifting manuals, is laying out its plans for the transition to EVs. And while that transition does include sports cars and maybe, even, an NSX, it will likely not include manual transmissions. Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe and Head of Electrification Shinji Aoyama said the company wasn’t likely to build shift-yourself EVs, Car and Driver reports,
This stands in contrast to Dodge and Toyota, who have both toyed with either simulated manuals or driver involvement in an EV transmission. The Honda executives admit it’s possible, but there’s not much interest on their end.
Honda’s Head of Electrification Shinji Aoyoma (left) and CEO Toshihiro Mibe (right).
Daichi Saito/Honda
“Artificially, we can do it. Mechanically, it is not easy,” Aoyama said in a roundtable interview with Car and Driver. He described artificial shifting as similar in concept to simulated sounds for EVs, again like the one Dodge is promoting for the EV Charger. Both ideas have their proponents, but Aoyama says he’s not a fan of either. Honda, Aoyoma told C/D, will pursue other ways to make its cars fun to drive.
The CEO, Mibe, added that while Honda’s sports cars will be distinct from the competition, things are going to change. “I’m not sure if we can replace the manual transmission,” he told C/D.
Speaking to Road & Track in a separate roundtable interview, Mibe added that Honda would have to find new ways to make its sports cars compelling.
“So far, Honda’s selling points [for sports cars] have been Honda’s engines and the manual transmission,” Mibe told R&T through an interpreter. “But from now on, we would like to be able to come up with cars that are loaded with technology that gives it the fun to drive features and are fun to drive in the age of electrification”
How exactly Honda will separate its cars from the competition remains to be seen. But the company already has prototypes of an EV sports car and, per Mibe, “that vehicle is more fun to drive, definitely, compared to the six-speed manual transmission vehicle.”
Keyword: Honda Won't Do Simulated Manual Transmissions for EVs