So trying to figure out why electrical engine only needs a single gear while a combustion engines needs multiple gears. Cant wrap my head around it for some reason
EDIT: Thanks for all the explanation, but now another question popped up in my head. Would there ever be a point of having a manual electric car? I’ve heard rumors of Toyota registering a patent for a system which would mimic a manual transmission, but through all this conversation I assume there’s really no point?
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To add to other answers: reciprocal mass is a problem in a gas engine that simply doesn’t exist in electric motors.
In a gas engine, to spin faster, pistons and valves must move up and down thousands of times a second. every time the piston and valves reach the end of their travel, all of that mass has to come to a stop, and then accelerate in the opposite direction, taking dozens of Gs of force. At a certain point, this force becomes so high that the rods holding them will break, and pistons will fly out of the engine.
Take your arm and move it up and down slowly, notice how much effort it takes. Now do it as fast as you possibly can, notice it takes a significant amount more to move. Your engine is doing this thousands of times a minute and the rods inside it (your bones in this case) can only take so much force before they just simply break. If you were capable of faster movement, you would be able to break your bones if you moved your arm too fast back and forth. Your engine has this happen to it too when forced to spin too fast.
None of this is a problem in an electric motor. When a motor runs, it is a circle spinning faster and faster, like a wheel. There is no mass that has to come to a stop and change direction every cycle.
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