That’s why the electric BMW M gets a vibrating “gearbox”
Car manufacturers use all sorts of tricks to make electric cars feel like electric cars. For example, Hyundai is introducing a “gearbox” on the Ioniq 5 N. And Frank van Meel, head of BMW M, thinks it’s a good idea.
We deliberately put the word “gear” in brackets, because the Ioniq 5 N has no gear and doesn’t need one. Hyundai just made the hot crossover’s electric powertrain pretend to shift.
BMW M comes with electric performance models
Toyota is also working on a simulated transmission for electric vehicles, going even one step further than Hyundai. The brand even tries to mimic the actuation of a clutch, so you can even “turn off” the car.
At some point, BMW M will also have to believe in it. An electric M3 and M4 really aren’t that far off in the future. CEO Frank van Meel is only concerned about the experience.
Artificial vibrations in a simulated gearbox
He told WhichCar.com that BMW M is studying simulated gears (whatever that means) and artificial vibrations. That way, an electric M could better tell the driver what’s happening.
In a car with a petrol engine, the person behind the wheel can feel all kinds of sensations, such as noise and vibration, without having to constantly look at the dashboard.
Only Audi and Porsche used real gearboxes
An electric vehicle generally has one gear. Only Audi and Porsche use a two-speed gearbox in the E-Tron GT and Taycan. The Ioniq 5N software simulates an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission by controlling the torque of the electric motors with the computer.
The driver of the Ioniq 5 N is helped by the “sound” of the engines, which can pretend that the electric Hyundai has a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine.