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Will Future Electric Cars Use A Manual Transmission?

This is the second video of a five part series where I’ve partnered with Formula E to answer questions about electric vehicles, and this topic was actually inspired by Renault’s season 2 Formula E car, which uses a 2-speed gearbox matched with a single transversely mounted electric motor. What’s super clever about their set up, is that they have incorporated a manual gear stick, using cables and rods to switch between the two gears, rather than the pneumatic paddle shifters which other teams were using. Renaults solution is simpler, and also lighter, as it doesn’t require onboard pumps or air-tanks for gear shifts. But could this be taken a step further, and incorporate a clutch as well for street cars? I spent some time chatting with the current Formula E champion, Lucas Di Grassi, who spends his free time engineering electric bikes, about this idea.

We have two questions to answer:
1. Is it possible?
2. Is it logical? 

About this video
Duration
05:51
Posted
Aug 31, 2017
Series

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