GEAR CHANGE – The electrification of cars is leading to the lesser diffusion of manual gearboxes. Toyotawho has made a flag of the hybrid combined with the continuously variable automatic transmission, would however be thinking of bringing the manual transmission on its hybrid cars. At least on the higher performing ones. The Drive has in fact discovered that the Japanese company has filed a patent for a manual transmission system to be used on hybrid vehicles.
THREE-CYLINDER SYSTEM – The patent is quite complicated and specifically describes the handling of clutch. The system consists of a shuttle valve configuration with three clutch cylinders, one of which is the master cylinder and whose input is the output of the shuttle valve. This valve receives input from two separate cylinders, one connected to the clutch pedal and the other controlled by the car’s ECU: the flow that supplies the valve with higher pressure is then routed to the master cylinder.
SPORTS MODE – The system studied by Toyota should allow this way to “disconnect” the engine from the wheels when necessary, for example to make the car “sail” before stopping. The way the valves are arranged also leaves the driver free to press the clutch pedal firmly, “forcing” the valve to ignore the ECU. The patent also describes a sports mode, in which the cylinder connected to the ECU will be deactivated, making the car operate as with a traditional manual gearbox.
