It’s safe to say Porsche’s EV transition isn’t going as smoothly as it had hoped, with both the Taycan sedan and Macan SUV – once its best seller with petrol power – not garnering the attention once expected.
Among the criticisms are of the price of the vehicles and the concept of owners having to approach driving differently, partly due to being limited in driving range, but also from the different feelings an EV conveys.
As reported by US publication The Drive, Porsche might soon be able to address the latter issue, with an anonymous source claiming the brand has told its dealers it will introduce fake gearshifts to its EVs, starting with the Taycan from 2027.
Pioneered by the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, the South Korean brand’s technology simulates not only the sound but also the feeling of driving a petrol-powered hot hatch, implementing piped-in engine noises to the cabin and exterior, while also mimicking the feeling of a dual-clutch automatic transmission.
According to The Drive’s source, the ‘virtual transmission’ will likely be able to be turned on and off, though it’s not yet known whether they’ll be accompanied by fake sounds in the cabin.
In response to The Drive’s questions, Porsche said it “Porsche continuously tests and evaluates potential new technologies as part of its research and development process”.
“If and when these technologies may or may not be brought to market is decided based on the insights gained from these exploratory tests. The same applies to consideration of a potential virtual transmission in the future.”
It’s not the first time the technology has been rumoured to feature in an upcoming Porsche EV, after the brand’s prototype fleet manager, Sascha Niesen told the publication in August that it could also simulate engine sounds and the feeling of gearshifts.
“We recorded noises from both the sound it’s making on the inside for the interior, and for the outside, the sound coming out of the exhaust,” Niesen said.
“You need to modulate it because the rev range [on the EV] is much bigger. But in theory, if you would introduce virtual gear shifts, you could use the whole thing, depending how many virtual gears you would introduce.
“It’s in consideration if we want to do it or not. It would need hardware. Because right now you don’t have any shifter paddles [in the Cayenne EV].
“I drove a concept vehicle in March. I wanted to hate it because it’s artificial and it’s fake and everything. I was afraid that the people that are doing it are just software geeks who have no idea how a transmission works and try to emulate it.
“[…] they [Porsche’s gearbox engineers know what they’re doing. They were able to make it feel like a proper torque converter gearbox. I could not tell the difference.”
The executive added carmakers have to “give the customer the option to be more engaged, but in an EV, it cannot be mandatory”.
“From an engineering perspective, it doesn’t make any sense to introduce a gear shift. But then again, you have continuously variable transmissions that did introduce gear shifts because it felt more natural. You didn’t need it.”
Given the new Cayenne, Macan and Taycan EVs don’t have shift paddles, the physical hardware would need to be added in a future update for the vehicles to support the simulated shifting.
Executives from Aston Martin have also previously said they have considered adopting a similar system for its first EV.
Discussion about this post