Honda Reportedly Developing Manual Transmission for Electric Vehicles

Rowing your own way through the gears may not go the way of the dodo when electric vehicles take over the world. In a recent interview, Honda engineers confirmed to The Drive that the Japanese brand has developed a synthetic manual transmission for electric vehicles.

This is not the first time we've seen a manual transmission EV, or even one from Japan; Toyota teased its development of an electric three-pedal machine more than a year ago. Still, seeing other brands working on the technology makes the odds of it becoming a reality more likely — and the preliminary reports about Honda's manual EV program sound rather promising.

Reporting from The Drive claims that Honda's EV manual transmission will, of course, have a clutch pedal, and can simulate traditional stick shift driving. It's unclear how exactly the falsified gear ratios will work. still, there are possibly blueprints for such a system to be found in models like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, which features a superbly fun artificial paddle-shifting feature.

While Toyota has previously claimed it would allow manual transmission EVs to stall, it's unclear if Honda will do the same. None of these manual transmission EVs have any true mechanical connection, however — meaning that any sort of stalling feature would be fake.

This development represents a reversal in Honda's ideology about manual transmissions and EVs. Previously, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe and head of electrification Shinji Aoyama had rebuked the idea of building a manual transmission EV, claiming they weren't sure if "we can replace the manual transmission."

Honda's engineers were also queried about the potential for real driver feedback from the manual transmission EV by The Drive. An engineer for Honda admitted that these stick-shift EVs wouldn't have the same mechanical satisfaction as models like the Honda S2000 and Acura NSX, both of which were beloved for their impeccable shifter feel.

If this manual transmission were fitted to a production car, Honda says it would most likely start in its 0 Series EV, which the company revealed more details of earlier this week. However, there's no confirmation from Honda as to whether the manual EV transmission will actually go into production. This reporting comes out of a new technology show-and-tell at Honda’s Tochigi proving grounds in Japan, indicating this kind of reveal is more about what Honda can do, not necessarily what it will do.

In any event, we'd love to give it a try and see if it feels the synchros-and-all real deal. After all, Honda, Toyota let us try their manual EV prototype; the ball is in your court.

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