Add Volkswagen to the short list of manufacturers juggling with the idea of a manual transmission for electric vehicles. At the Los Angeles Auto Show, Kai Grünitz, Volkswagen's global head of research and development, told Motor Authority that the automaker had tested a manual transmission for electric models.
He confided, however, that he didn't particularly like it. He said he likes the smoothness of EVs and that they run noiselessly, and in that sense it makes sense to stick to a single gear.
However, when asked whether a mechanical gearbox would work with a Golf GTI or an all-electric Golf R, he replied that it was an option, referring to the N version of the Hyundai Ioniq 5.
In his view, a GTI has to generate emotions, and to do that, it needs sound. He floated the idea of a “GTI mode” that could produce sounds and “other features” that would call to mind a sports car.
Obviously, there would be no manual gearbox as we know it in an electric vehicle. But various options are available to engineers to recreate the feel of driving a car with a mechanical gearbox.
Toyota has worked on and patented its version, which we might find in the car set to replace the Lexus LFA. General Motors has also been working on a clutch system for the “gearboxes” of electric models. Porsche has considered the idea as well, but nothing conclusive has come out of it.
Returning to the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, Grünitz said that while he found the performance EV interesting to drive, that he wouldn't want to use it on a daily basis. We can guess that electric versions of Volkswagen's Golf R and GTI would be less extreme than Hyundai's N model.
That said, the executive did say that if customer demand is there, “we will also provide sounds.”
This is all moot in the short term of course - electric versions of the Golf GTI and Golf R are not expected before the end of the decade, the executive pointed out.