I’ve seen this mentioned, but I don’t think I’ve heard a proper explanation. Are there some expected complications with integrating an automatic that should be avoided? I’ve never driven a manual car so if I’m gonna buy a car to convert it’d probably be my first manual drive vehicle.
In: 19
Acting on the assumption that you’re going to replace the gas engine with an electric one, and preserve the transmission, this is true. And commonly, you do want to.
The hydraulic systems in an automatic will require constant power. An idling engine can provide this, but one of the advantages of an electric engine is that it shuts down when stopped. Without this engine power, there’s no hydraulic power to change gears in the transmission mechanics, and you’d be stuck in neutral. Furthermore an automatic is just generally heavier and less efficient compared to the equivalent automatic, so given the choice, it seems like a no-brainer.
Whereas in a manual, there’s no such need. When driving you’d likely still change gears, but much less frequently. For city driving you could just leave it in 3rd gear or so. The transmission has no energy needs and the driver directly moves the parts inside it with the gear lever.
Especially for front wheel drive, the differential – which turns 1 spinning power source into 2 for your two driven wheels – is part of the transmission itself. So separating it out as a discrete component and just having electric power feed into it isn’t an option. Besides, the electric motor generally does well with some gearing lower than 1:1 (approximately 4th gear in a typical manual). The transmission is still functionally useful for having a neutral (safety) and reverse gear.
An alternative design would be to put an electric motor on each wheel, but there are concerns with that design, like uneven power to each wheel. Using the original differential would be better.
Latest Answers