I know electric cars don’t need multiple gears, but wouldn’t they benefit from them in anyway at high speed for example?

Question

I know electric cars don’t need multiple gears, but wouldn’t they benefit from them in anyway at high speed for example?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Yes! Tesla’s original concept for the Roadster utilized a multi speed transmission. Electric motors have lots of torque(what gets a car moving quick), and it’s 100% available right away unlike gas engines, which is great but also a problem: making transmissions that don’t break under the torque is a big challenge. Tesla abandoned them because it was taking them too long to build and they needed to release the car.

Where transmissions would benefit electric cars the most and what a lot of other answers are missing is range and efficiency. Even though electric motors have all the torque available right away, it doesn’t mean they’re efficient at low speeds. Unlike gas motors, electric motors are happiest being spun very fast, spinning them slow and asking for power makes them very hot and uses tons more energy than running very fast. So that means you lose range. Not unlike gas engines that are most efficient running at a certain speed/RPM. Because electric motors hit peak efficiency at high RPM, it also means they REALLY run out of power at high RPM too. Many electric vehicles have pretty poor top speeds for this exact reason: you can’t make a motor/engine that is efficient at low AND high speeds, regardless of electric or gas. High end expensive electric cars compensate with bigger/more powerful motors and larger batteries, but this increases cost dramatically and isn’t really a “solution”.

So the similar gains can be applied to electric motors with a transmission. Or more specifically, you could achieve the same performance with a smaller motor by having multiple gears for different speeds, increasing range dramatically because a smaller motor uses less energy.

Porsche actually used a multi speed transmission in the Taycan, and there’s LOTS of companies investing R&D into developing transmissions that can hold up to electric motors. Electric cars of the future WILL have transmissions.