Comment by anthk
Gear shifting it's still a thing in Europe, and mandatory if you want to get your driver's license.
Gear shifting it's still a thing in Europe, and mandatory if you want to get your driver's license.
At this point, it is a historical artefact that will cease to exist soon enough.
Electric vehicles do not have gearboxes as there are no converters, so there is nothing to shift up or down. A few performance EV's that have been announced (and maybe even have released) with a gear stick, do so for nostalgic reasons and the gear shift + the accompanying experience is simulated entirely in the software.
The Porsche Taycan has two forward gears, but it's apparently the only EV that does: https://www.wired.com/story/electric-car-two-speed-transmiss...
you can get a driver license with an automatic. But it just means you can only drive automatics.
It would have been a huge deal not being able to drive manuals 20y ago but hybrid and ev all being automatic it is not that much of a downside nowadays unless you want to buy old cars or borrow friend's car. Most renting fleets have autos available nowadays.