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A 2023 Lexus concept featuring a H-pattern gearbox complete with clutch and the ability to stall faces a stiff challenge from Japanese regulators.
Electric Cars
Regulatory hurdles around licencing are proving challenging for the Lexus plan to continue developing a ‘H-pattern’ gearbox for its expanding range of electric vehicles.
First revealed in a 2023 UX300e prototype, the system known then as Electrified Drive, featured a traditional H-pattern shifter, along with a clutch pedal and artificial rev counter.
The car's electric motor along with other programmable components and engine sounds were mapped to replicate a combustion car.
“From the outside, this vehicle is as quiet as any other [electric car]. But the driver is able to experience all the sensations of a manual transmission vehicle,” Lexus boss Takashi Watanabe said at the 2022 announcement.
“It is a software-based system, so it can be programmed to reproduce the driving experience of different vehicle types, letting the driver choose their preferred mapping.”
Drivers could select the feel and sound of a variety of petrol engines, from four-cylinder to V8, while being too greedy with the clutch would result in the system mimicking a stall.
While never intended for production, Lexus’s UX300e concept proved that electric cars could have a realistic feeling manual transmission.
“So that vehicle, obviously, was a rolling test project,” Lexus’s assistant chief engineer, Yasuyuki Terada told Drive. “That one had a clutch pedal and it had a gearbox on it, and there's two versions of real transmission gearbox as well as the electric one.
But that gets caught up in the regulations of, is it a manual or an automatic? And so that's a whole another issue.
“In Japan, for instance, your driver's license, you have to qualify to get a manual transmission license. So if we offer that [system] and you can turn it on and off, which license is that car allowable? So these are issues that nobody has even started to talk about.”
While regulatory hurdles could ultimately see the idea of a H-pattern style transmission scuppered from future electric vehicles, Terada did reveal that the learnings the manufacturer took from the concept have been applied into the production version of Lexus’s Interactive Manual Drive that will make its way to Australia nearly next year in the Lexus RZ 550e F Sport.
“However, the technology that we gained from that, one part of that was applied into our interactive manual drive system [found in the new Lexus RZ],” said Terada.
And when asked if the regulatory hurdles around the idea meant the groundbreaking technology was off the table, Terada answered, “No, not at all.”
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Rob Margeit is an award-winning Australian motoring journalist and editor who has been writing about cars and motorsport for over 25 years. A former editor of Australian Auto Action, Rob’s work has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Wheels, Motor Magazine, Street Machine and Top Gear Australia. Rob’s current rides include a 1996 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and a 2000 Honda HR-V Sport.
