I’m riding shotgun in the 2027 Genesis GV60 Magma, the Korean brand’s little electric performance crossover that’s very spicy and very orange. Behind the wheel is seasoned endurance racer, and Genesis Magma Racing’s newest driver, Dani Juncadella. We’re at Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France, and despite the idyllic location, marble-sized snowflakes are hitting the windshield. He activates launch control, and we blast away from the starting line and rocket into the first corner. And in the madness of being thrown around like a rag doll, I forget for a minute that we’re in an EV.
Why? Because the GV60’s cabin is filled with a throaty roar that’s rising and falling as Juncadella clicks away at the paddle shifters and hammers the throttle, the car’s powertrain sounding and responding exactly like has a gas engine and a real transmission. Except, it doesn’t. What it does have is a “Virtual Gear Shift System,” aka fake gear shifts, software designed to mimic the sound and driving experience of an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission in an ICE car. And man, does it ever.
This isn’t new. The same tech with a different name is found on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N and 6 N, where it’s also been showered with praise by reviewers, us included. What is new, though, is the tense reaction the concept of fake shift points in EVs is getting these days. After we reported that Porsche is going to follow Hyundai’s lead and add a similar system to its electric models earlier this month, forums and social media lit up with enthusiasts and EV-diehards both declaring how stupid the idea was, how much they hated the whole concept, how it makes the car worse, and how that’s it, they’re never going to buy a Porsche (like they were really gonna, anyway).
On the r/technology subreddit, one pro-EV commenter said you have to be “next-level stupid” to want fake gear shifts, and another compared it to the grocery carts with the plastic car cockpit attached to the front for kids. On r/electricvehicles, someone imagined if Henry Ford made the Model T to drop “simulated manure” for people who preferred horses. Then on r/Porsche, many said it was “troubling” that their beloved brand was focusing R&D efforts on something so useless. On r/cars, one compared it to “putting playing cards in bicycle spokes… pitiful.” And pretty much everywhere, the word “pathetic” was thrown around a lot.
The internet is full of strong opinions, but this stood out. It’s not every day you see those two camps so united, especially over a totally optional software feature that doesn’t add any weight or complexity, and is all about making an EV more fun to drive for those used to gas-powered cars. I mean, if I didn’t specify the examples, could you tell which subreddits the above screenshots came from? It got us thinking: what’s really behind the hate? Is it ICE superiority? Is it EV superiority? Or is it a weird mix of both?
While you may think that the GV60 couldn’t possibly fool you, the truth is that, yes, it can. Hyundai and Genesis engineers absolutely nailed the correlation between the pedals, the paddle shifters, the sound piped in through the speakers, and the motors’ response in each “gear.” It bounces off the (non-existent) rev limiter, bucks on hard shifts, and bogs if you upshift too soon.
HYUNDAI IONIQ 5 N engine sound and N e-Shift
Back at Circuit Paul Ricard, as we head into the famous esses, Juncadella downshifts like he would in any other sports car—using the drivetrain’s regen braking to slow the car and set the suspension for the corner entry—before going for full turn-in and then getting back on the throttle. The downshifts are crisp, the feathering of the throttle completely audible, and the stabs of the accelerator Juncadella makes mid-corner all translate into a hyper-realistic simulation. Fake, yes. But I can’t help think that if you want to appeal to a broader range of buyers who might write off EVs as soulless, this is how you do it. Make it familiar, make it exciting, make it fun.
Fact is, on the regular enthusiast side, no one complains when a company offers an actual manual transmission in a gas car, even if it makes it slower in objective performance than a dual-clutch. But that’s exactly how many EV enthusiasts reacted—why would I want something that screws with that beautiful uninterrupted torque? Why on earth would companies make a car worse to appeal to morons? Meanwhile, many of those ICE enthusiasts, who would gladly celebrate a stick shift being added to a car in the name of driver engagement, are rejecting fake gear shifts being added solely for that same reason.
Watch my video above and judge for yourself. Some might call it barely a step above playing Gran Turismo, but it’s not. Unlike in a video game, there are real-world consequences behind your actions. Downshift one too many, and you’ll slow down way too abruptly going into a corner and upset the car. Don’t upshift at the right time, and you’ll have too much drag as you exit a corner and lumber down a straight—in real life.
I think what we’re seeing in the visceral response to the Porsche news comes down to all of us, willfully or not, being put through a moment of huge change. Whether you’re spending your free time on r/electricvehicles or VW Vortex, your car is a part of your identity, and anything that challenges that logic can be hard to take. The EV crowd wants the rest of the world to follow their lead and buy into electric cars for the same reasons they did—no emissions, pure electric performance, future tech is cool, etc. News like this is an unwelcome reminder that there are many, many people who just won’t do that, and massive companies are starting to make product decisions with those folks in mind instead as they run out of early adopters. The inevitable feels just a little less inevitable.
But many ICE enthusiasts hear about fake gear shifts and don’t feel like they’re being catered to. Instead, they see it as companies recognizing EVs are missing something fundamental they love about gas cars, but offering a phony substitute as a pacifier. It can’t possibly live up to the real thing, because if it did, it would be another nail in the coffin for a dying era. It’s a tough pill to swallow.
That’s a lot of emotion and feelings wrapped up in a frankly silly feature. At the same time, completely understandable and probably unavoidable. Personally, I look at it like launch control, another high-tech gimmick with no useful function in the real world—but it’s fun, and it makes us laugh. Why should simulated shifts be viewed any differently?
Ultimately, if they’re good enough for a WEC Hypercar racing driver, they’re good enough for me. And you, most likely. Just try it out before you make up your mind.
Got a tip? Send us a note: tips@thedrive.com