WATCH: Bosch Goes Against The Grain And Develops A Transmission For Electric Vehicles

Virtually all modern EVs send their power to the road via a direct drive and reduction gear system - they are single-speed machines. No shifting of gears or variable ratios in sight and manufacturers rely on electric motors’ well known torque to provide a blend of acceleration, efficiency and higher speed cruising ability.

The only current vehicle that has a geared transmission is the Porsche Taycan (and its sister model, the Audi E-Tron GT), which gets a two-speed gearbox for the rear motor, but it is an exception. There was also the unsuccessful Coda Sedan that tried to adapt a CVT (continuously variable transmission) to make the most of its electric motor, but sadly there are none around to see how that might have worked.