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Comment by bl0b | Hacker News Reader

I hope that someday there will be an option for an electric car with a manual transmission. Regardless of how small the market would be and how little practical sense it would make

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It'd be fairly weird though since the electrics don't idle. Starting off would be easy: just put it in gear and then accelerate without ever having to slip the clutch or even know about the clutch "bite" point. Be a bit like using a traditional starter motor with a manual already in gear and the clutch engaged.

The clutch would probably last a very long time.

My understanding is that gearboxes trade torque for rotational speed, and electric motors have plenty of the later but with less torque than exploding hydrocarbons to push pistons. So my guess is that in addition to be unnecessary (electric motors can do a lot of rpm with constant torque), it might be really hard to make a manual transmission electric car drive well with more than a couple gears. And switching between them wouldn’t be anything like the experience of an ICE car.

It might make more sense than you think. You'd almost never need more than two gears, and apparently they are bringing multi-speed gears to EVs:

https://www.currentautomotive.com/the-past-present-and-futur...

But it would only be of interest for the "sport" vehicle market, because EVs with one gearset work just fine.

Some years ago, my father in law added an electric engine to an old manual Chrysler from the 70s I think. I drove it once and it used gears and clutch. It was a good experience except for the fact that the car was super old!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/petit_pierrot/3740207175/

I don’t have any data to back this, but my guess is that a big portion of those who prefer stick will also prefer gas vs electric.

I have a manual (2018), I'd buy an electric for the acceleration but they need to make it a $30k autocross car. Don't mind if it's a death trap, just fast and cheap.

Perhaps add one of these Ford electric crate motors to… something cheap and light?

https://www.cjponyparts.com/ford-performance-electric-crate-...

Or, for a little more oomph, this "Tesla crate motor" by ReVolt:

https://revoltsystems.com/

I like driving manual and I like my EV. But I don't want a manual in my EV. Just give me an EV without all the traction control smarts. Give me access to the raw power so I can control how and when it slips.

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