- Porsche says there’s no point imitating ICEs when it’s still producing ICE-powered models.
- The company says using such a system would make its electric vehicles worse.
- The 718 Cayman and Boxster will morph into EVs in their next generation.
Of all the world’s carmakers, few cater to the wants and wishes of revheads and driving enthusiasts as well as Porsche. After all, it is the manufacturer of arguably the most iconic sports car of all time, the 911. However, when it comes to EVs, it appears the German brand isn’t interested in adding in some of the tech that its rivals have.
While a number of brands have launched performance-oriented EVs in the last few years, Hyundai is amongst those who managed to stand out thanks to the Ioniq 5 N. There are several reasons for this but among the most significant are the variety of modes and settings it has to add emotion and driving involvement, including simulated gear shifts.
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While recently speaking with members of the Australian media, Porsche development driver Lars Kern said his team has driven the Ioniq 5 N but decided against adding fake shifts to its EVs.
“Obviously, we look into what the competition does, but our perspective on this is always why should we make something worse?” he told Drive. “I mean because, in like just how it translates power or how power is applied? The electric engine is better than an ICE [internal combustion engine], so we figured there’s no reason to simulate what has been in the past. We looked at it, but… I don’t see the point of using it to make it feel like a combustion engine because it’s not, so we don’t. We don’t want to fake the combustion engine because we still produce combustion engines, so we don’t we don’t see the point of doing it.”
Kern added that while some people see merit in the Ioniq 5 N’s system, Porsche isn’t interested in making an EV feel like a combustion car.
While that’s understandable, there’s really no downside to engineering a fake shifter like Hyundai has done. In the Ioniq 5 N, the shifter has to be turned on, meaning that it can still be driven like any other EV when you’re not thrashing it up a mountain road or on a racetrack. It’s the best of both worlds. Admittedly, it wouldn’t be easy for Porsche to replicate its superb PDK transmission in an EV.
It will be interesting to see how Porsche looks to add some excitement to the next-generation 718 Cayman and Boxster, both of which will be EVs. One thing’s for certain, though – it won’t be with simulated gear shifts.
