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EVs are now outselling manual transmissions in the US
The manual transmission continues to have a pretty tough time here in America, with buyers avoiding manual-transmission cars in record numbers. Such record numbers that now EV sales have surpassed sales of vehicles with manual transmissions, according to data from J.D. Power and reported recently by Driving.ca.
Why is that important? Well, the venerable stick shift has been around since someone decided that cars needed more than one gear. While its previous popularity has been eclipsed by the automatic transmission for decades, the manual transmission has managed to hang on.
According to J.D. Power, manual transmissions have approximately 1.1% market penetration in America, which for many enthusiasts is a fairly grim figure to see. Comparatively, electric vehicles -- which have really only been commercially available to the public for the last decade or so -- now represent 1.9% of car sales in the US.
A big chunk of the reason for this likely lies in good old-fashioned availability. The manual transmission used to be the cheap transmission of choice. It was what you got when you were buying a small, affordable car and didn't want to shell out several thousand dollars for an automatic.
Now, most of those same small, affordable cars are only sold as automatics. The manual transmission was also traditionally the way you'd go if you wanted to buy a high-performance car because old automatics were often slow to shift and shifted at the wrong time. That's also changed, with many of the most high-performing models from companies offered with either paddle-shifted dual-clutch transmissions or performance-tuned automatics.
It was only a matter of time as fewer and fewer cars with manual transmissions are being manufactured at the same time as more and more electric vehicles are being built. Who here saw this coming so soon?
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday November 10 2019, @09:32AM
A slushbox with a shift kit isn't too bad. But manual inferior to an auto? With a knowledgeable driver you can keep it in the power curve better, shift faster and more efficiently and it weighs less. Never met a drag, circle, or road course racer who preferred an automatic. I used to circle track and my nephew is a drift racer, automatics suck for drift racing. You simply have far less control and power as an automatic loses more HP between engine and drive train, provable on a dynamometer. Manual is a direct connection, not fluid pressure based, very little power loss. A typical performance standard transmission loses about 15-18% of the engine's power. An automatic loses 18-22%.
Manuals let you pick the exact right gear to hit the maximum power spot right when you need it. Essentially, you are coaxing your engine and gearbox to maximum performance. Manuals won't shift unless you shift. When you are deep in a turn, the last thing you need is to destabilize your vehicle with an unplanned gear shift. That's a sure way to crash or lose time. Manuals are also more efficient for engine braking.
A lot has changed with modern racing cars and, and smooth-shift and clutchless transmissions have blurred the lines. But the selection of the gear is always in the racers control where it belongs.
Formula one uses a clutch for launch. The transmission has no torque converter and actually engages two gears at once, then disengages the previous gear for no power loss. But is is automatic in the sense that when the paddle to shift the gear is pulled, the computer controls the hydraulic electric gear change. Much lighter than an automatic and not significantly heavier than a full manual while being much faster than either.
They do not shift more accurately nor faster. Just less input and you can't bump start them with a dead battery.
Automatics take away the fun.
Just because it's cool, here is the best modular drag transmission available.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Autos/comments/maw71/til_about_the_lenco_transmission_a_drag_racing/ [reddit.com]
Respect all the vehicle variations, except this. This is just stupid.
https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/kG3OQ/s1/2012-296153-extreme-negative-oni-camber-tuning-800-12-02-20121.jpg [motor1.com]
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