I've wondered for a while, why don't EV vehicles use transmissions? I understand they don't need them but wouldn't it make the motor even more efficient?
Any ICE vehicles goal would be to put the lowest gearing (over drive) you can, without eating all of it's "passing power", nor dropping the RPMs too low. The lower the gear, the lower the engine needs to spin to keep that speed. The catch being, you need lots of torque to spin that gear, which electric motors have plenty of.
It just seems like you can easily sacrifice your horsepower for some more efficient highway speeds.
One of the reasons is that a gearbox capable of withstanding the torque from an electric motor would need to be rather heavy. I suspect that if there are any efficiency gains to be had, they’d be offset by the increased mass and transmission losses. Not to mention the increased parts cost, manufacturing complexity and packaging challenges.
That is true, but I've also read that F1 (electric series?) was using transmissions at first and some stuck with them, while some didnt. Although, F1 has unlimited budget. Im sure using lower power motors would allow the usage of transmission and maintain enough power to be a daily commuter.
I'd imagine the top end being where you need the gearing. If you can cut the rpm in half while on a road trip that's double(?) mileage? Im sure it isn't that cut and dry though, they probably did plenty of experiments.
Any ICE vehicles goal would be to put the lowest gearing (over drive) you can, without eating all of it's "passing power", nor dropping the RPMs too low. The lower the gear, the lower the engine needs to spin to keep that speed. The catch being, you need lots of torque to spin that gear, which electric motors have plenty of.
It just seems like you can easily sacrifice your horsepower for some more efficient highway speeds.