Technology

Ignore the fake stick shift, what the hell happened to Toyota? They used to make reliable, economic, no-bullshit cars. They invented (or popularized) the hybrid.

So Toyota missed the EV trend. We'd all be crazy rich now if we had predicted the rise of Tesla, so I guess this one can be forgiven.

I'm not a car-enthusiast. What I want from a car is less controls and distraction. A stick shift is more work for the driver, but logical. It exists for a reason. You can argue that automatic is a better solution for the problem, but when you learned to drive a manual, it works.

Also, 99% of the time, the stick works the same one any model from any manufacturer. It is expected.

I don't get why people would want such gimmicks. The Toyota fake stick may be extreme and doesn't fit the brand image at all; but many carmakers tend to treat EVs as toys; not real cars...

Before I got my EV, all my vehicles were manual transmission vehicles except for one truck. That truck's transmission was such a piece of shit and I had to have it rebuilt 2x while I owned it.

EVs have no transmission (well, I've seen some conversions that do but that's a little different). At first I thought it would be like driving an automatic but it's really not.

In an automatic, the transmission starts pushing you forward as soon as you let off the brake. In a manual and EVs, when you take your foot off the brake, nothing happens.

In an automatic, there's not really a good way to decelerate without pressing on the brake. In a manual you can downshift (I know you can kindof downshift in an automatic but it's really not the same) and in an EV you have the regenerative braking.

Accelerating in an EV is just better than anything because it's just smooth acceleration right to wherever speed you are going to. Manuals can be fun to shift but I would say that EVs are better in this regard. Automatics still shift, they just shift for you and will often do it at the wrong times and can sometimes feel jerky if trying to accelerate quickly.

Really I think some people are just hesitant to adopt something new, especially if they feel like it's being forced upon them as some sort of agenda. I think as they drop in price and more people try them, they will like them. Then there's just the issue of range. I think if someone could get a $20-30k car with 300+mi range, it would be super popular.