Electric Vehicles

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Electric Vehicles are a key part of our tomorrow and how we get there. If we can get all the fossil fuel vehicles off our roads, out of our seas and out of our skies, we'll have a much better environment. This community is where we discuss the various different vehicles and news stories regarding electric transportation.

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Sunshine

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Ford Patents A Manual Gear Shifter For EVs (insideevs.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by Sunshine to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It would be nice if it changed the amount of regen (engine braking) and acceleration. Just like downshifting into a corner and powering out of it. I've never driven an ev, so idk if it would help with driving performance. I drove a manual for over a decade and I'm over it. I'll have fun driving anything really. I like to hit the tricky apex on the onramp every morning. The people riding my ass end up about a 1/4 mile behind me pretty quickly because they don't understand how to drive.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Gears are important with an internal combustion engine because at low revs they have less torque and the high end you run out of speed headroom, so if you're going slowly you can boost your acceleration by changing the gear ratio and when you near your maximum rpm, you can change up to boost your acceleration.

It's pleasing because you regain the ability to accelerate and it feels nice to be able to press the pedal and feel the acceleration of the car.

In an EV you can do that at absolutely any time, it doesn't depend on what you do with your other hand or your other foot, so there's never any delay at all between a decision and a zoom.

This is why an EV is so much fun to drive for me.

In an EV the accelerator pedal just never feels spongy and unresponsive. It was never the preparation for acceleration that I enjoyed, it was the acceleration. I test drove some EVs that have a drive mode you can select that replicates the feel of an ICE car off the line. I characterise this as spongy and unresponsive and I don't know why anyone likes it at all.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

I guess sometimes I want decreased pedal input to slow the car down more than other times, and sometimes I want increased pedal input to accelerate more than others. Traction control solves this for the most part though. I'll have to get ahold of an ev and see what it's like. Winter driving is one of the times where I did prefer a manual so that lifting the throttle didn't mean losing control, but I guess I've never had a car with modern traction control either.