With the radio off, driving around town in two wheel drive, I noticed that the electric motor’s whine would slowly rise in pitch just like any EV. The whole off-road experience is far smoother than internal combustion, but the vehicle surprised me in another way on the road. This advantage is greatly magnified by gear reduction, so running in 4-Low in the vehicle’s lowest gear allows for not only amazing torque at the wheels, but a great amount of control over that torque. Instead of having to gas-brake-gas-brake over obstacles, you can give it just the right amount of power to smoothly climb an obstacle. The biggest advantage is going to be how controllable they are at low RPM. I won’t be discussing any hybrid behavior, gas engines, etc.Īs I pointed out in this other article/video, upcoming full EV off-road vehicles are going to be awesome. ![]() Before you all get the rope, I’m only going to be discussing the vehicle’s behavior in EV mode in this article. Yes, I know, the Wrangler 4xe is a plugin hybrid. In its most efficient drive mode (which the EPA doesn’t use), it got far more range on the real highway than anticipated, while the Tesla fell a little short of EPA estimates.īut what happens when we go beyond 2 gears? Would an EV benefit from 3, 4, or even 5 speeds? As we’re finding out, it turns out that the answer to that is “Yes.” What I Learned From the Wrangler 4xe This, along with other factors, explains why the Taycan got such a good number in Edmunds‘ range testing. At highway speeds, both the front and rear drive units employ an 8.5:1 gear ratio, but the rear motor can go as high as 15:1, allowing for way more torque multiplication during the initial launch, before switching to a gear that’s taller than the Teslas for highway cruising. Porsche took this idea to the next level by introducing a two-speed transmission in the rear drive unit. Plus, the front motor on performance models is smaller and is better suited to this task. At higher cruising speeds (highway driving), the power gets diverted mostly to the front motor, which has a higher gear ratio, effectively giving the vehicle a second gear. At low speeds, a Tesla can send more power to the rear wheels where they’ll do better for launching. The fact that an EV can do without multiple gear ratios doesn’t mean they can’t make things a little better, though, and Tesla knows this. EVs can just stay in a single gear that covers all of the vehicle’s speeds, so you can do without a transmission. Eventually (often before 40 MPH), you need to shift to a higher gear to not destroy the engine. To roll down the road, it’s not strictly necessary to have multiple gear ratios to avoid over-revving the electric motor the way you’d over-rev a gas or diesel engine. Yes, it’s true that an electric motor can operate across a much wider range of speeds (RPMs) than a gas engine. If they’re doing okay without one, then it must not be important, right? If you look more closely at Tesla’s dual motor offerings, you’ll find that they have a transmission of sorts, and reap those benefits in a rather creative way. Tesla fans tend to think that transmissions aren’t necessary or good because they think Tesla’s vehicles don’t have a transmission. Why EVs Benefit from Transmissionsīefore I get to my specific experience, I want to go over the reasons EV transmissions are a good thing. Last month I had a chance to experience this for myself, and I wanted to share what I learned from the experience. ![]() Since then, we’ve seen a number of EVs and plugin hybrids that use a transmission, and the advantages that were mathematically predictable (as well as known from the DIY EV scene that predated mass EV production) became a reality. ![]() ![]() Just over two years ago, I wrote an article discussing upcoming EV transmissions.
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