Honda, one of the few automakers still committed to stick shifts, is being realistic as the electric era unfolds and pushes the manual transmission toward obsolescence.
In an interview with Car and Driver, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe and Shinji Aoyama, global head of the company’s electrification efforts, downplayed hopes that Honda would adopt some type of artificial manual transmission for electric vehicles. Honda’s EV plans include two sports cars — what the automaker describes as a flagship and a “specialty” model.
“Artificially, we can do it. Mechanically, it is not easy,” Aoyama told the magazine, referring to a simulated manual as “like an extension of active sound control.”