Looking for an EV with a manual transmission
 

Long story short, I refuse to own an automobile with an automatic transmission. The next time I'm in the market for a vehicle, I hope to buy a HEV, so after looking around and noticing that neither the current Honda Insights or Toyota Priuses come in manual, I decided to ask for guidance from my favorite forum!

The saturn S series is a popular model to convert. You should be able to find one converted already or a suitable motor and adapter fairly easily.

All the production EVs I know of are direct drive, with sufficiently large motors to compensate for lack of gear selections.

Note, there are plenty of used EV's in the $10-$15k range. It is hard to justify a conversion for simple commuting purposes, unless you get everything you need for a bargain. Decent batteries are many thousands of dollars.

The car I'm currently driving was from New York. From there, it traveled out to Colorado, where I became it's 3rd owner. Needless to say, it's old and rusted. I'm looking at possibilities for its replacement in the future(maybe a year or 2 down the road).

Whatever I decide to get, it has to be manual. That's the only stipulation, so it definitely doesn't have to be new off the lot, either. I thought I remembered hearing that the Insight was offered with a manual before, but I wouldn't know what year models they were.

01 Honda insight

Here ya go.

regards
mech

Nice insight!
DarkXoa, can you clarify? "Looking for an EV " but posting in the hybrid section...

Does an ev with only one gear qualify as a "manual" or an "automatic" in your book? FYI, the prius only has one gear too.

Only ev conversions keep the gearbox, and then usually only if they don't have a very large (expensive) battery pack and motor and controller.

I used to hate auto trannies in general and CVT's in particular for the shift latency and high rotating mass.
On accelerating the engine is speeding up the gearbox at first instead of the car.
I wanted the direct response that a manual provides.

The CVT in my hybrid is different. On acceleration it instantaneously throws 10 kW extra into the tranny, so the engine revs up fast while the acceleration is there too.
Direct response just like a manual, but without having to shift, ever.

I don't know your experience, maybe you have driven a hybrid and disliked the tranny.
But if you only driven non-hybrid autos give it a spin.
Maybe you'll end up owning a car you'd never thought you would, just like me.

EV's typically only have ONE gear ratio. So they don't have an automatic OR a manual transmission.

The only EV I know of that had a clutch and had the option of using one of two different gear ratios - that only "shifted" before you started to drive - was the earlier version of the IMW 'Seven'. And it's clutch and transmission took a beating, and they failed after a brief time.

You should drive and EV - it is about much more than shifting.

Sorry, I should've titled this thread, "looking for a HEV with a manual tranny"

It's not a manual to me unless it has a clutch pedal and a shifter.

Didn't know that... Thanks for the warning.

I've only ever driven my friend's '05 Prius. I didn't have any more problems with it than I have ever had with any other automatic.
My experience with automatics is this: when put behind the wheel of a car with a manual gearbox, I am in tune with the road. I, personally, believe that automatic transmissions cause drivers to become lazy simply because it frees up some of the attention that the driver would otherwise be spending on the transmission. If the driver can pay attention to other things, he/she will, and we all know what that leads to... Me cursing at the idiot in front of me because they should've never been allowed to take the driver's test, much less have a license... or worse...
</rant>

So, is it only G1 Insight, or G2 as well? As of right now, this looks to be the only option.

EDIT: A used Honda Insight looks to be my only option.

1st gen Civic hybrids also had manual (and lean burn). 1st gen Insights 00-07 were the only ones with manual trans. 2nd gens are all CVT.

That being said, I have to agree with Neil. Driving a Prius or EV is not a lazy affair if you're trying to get good FE. However, you can still set the cruise and get great mileage too.

That G1 may not be exactly what you're looking for:
But at least it's in good shape.

Thanks a million! I think this might be exactly what I was looking for. Any chance you could tell me what years the G1 Civic hybrid ran?

I must say that I agree with you here entirely. My short experience with driving the '05 Prius led me to believe that I could definitely be in tune with such a vehicle, as I would definitely be trying to max out my FE, but I don't think I could ever feel the same "in-tuneness," for lack of a better word, that I feel when shifting gears.

1st gen civic hybrid is 03-05, not all of the 5 speeds had lean burn. You could also look into the manual transmission Honda CR-Z HYBRID

I totally get that. I specifically traded my last car for the 5 spd Metro to get a manual trans. :)

Interesting. How can you tell the difference? 5 wire O2 sensor?

But I WANT to shift, always :-)

For the OP, if you want something newer than the Gen1 Insight, the CR-Z hybrid also comes with MT.

This guy knows what's up! xD

The age of the car isn't an issue as long as it's mechanically sound, so as it stands, these are my options:

• G1 Honda Insight ('00-'07)
• G1 Honda Civic Hybrid ('03-'05) *may or may not have lean burn*
• Honda CR-Z Hybrid ('??-Present)

EDIT: I think I'm starting to fall in love with Honda, even though they seem to be phasing out my love for changing gears.

PS: I plan to edit the OP later, and include a master list, so that this thread can be more accessible to those with similar idiosyncrasies. :D

If I did not have my Sentra so close to fully sorted out I would be all over that Insight in Cocoa Florida, assuming it had no serious defects other than the clear coat paint issue.

regards
mech

My Insight has flappy paddles so I can shift it if I want to.
It then has 7 preset fake gears that lock the CVT into a fixed ratio.
I have used it to good effect descending a hill in 2013 to increase engine braking, which also increases low speed power regeneration.
Since then, IIRC I accidentally pulled one once last year.
Other than that, I dont use it :)
My cruise control buttons show signs of wear.

There are quite a few threads on the G1 Insight floating around. I have one in this section that you might be interested in.

I love my car.

The Insight in Cocoa is sold, the guy just hasn't taken the ad off Craigslist yet.

FYI: If there's a G1 Insight for sale in the state of Florida, you had better move pretty quickly on it, somebody keeps snapping them up! :D

Read through a couple of our threads here if you're interested in a G1 Insight, there are some huge fans of them on this site. If you're looking for the highest mpg possible without going full-on EV, this is the car.

Prepare to drive a bit to look at one!