The Lexus RZ’s New Manual Mode Unlocks Huge Possibilities

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N completely changes what’s possible in an electric vehicle with its N Grin Shift feature, a system that simulates the sound and feeling of a traditional engine and gears in a combustion car. But Hyundai is no longer the only automaker to offer a feature like this, as the 2026 Lexus RZ hits the market. Toyota and Lexus have already spoken about how they are developing a manual transmission for EVs, and the possibilities don’t end there.

Speaking to Yasuyuki Terada, the Lexus RZ chief engineer, (through an interpreter) during a First Drive event in Portugal, CarBuzz learned that this car only scratches the surface of this technology. Specifically, we asked if Lexus could imitate the power and torque curves of its finest gas-powered models (like the Supra and LFA). His answer should get you excited.

Making A Car Slower On Purpose

Making an EV feel more like a combustion engine vehicle is tricky for some automakers because it involves making a slower on purpose. That’s because a modern EV might be faster and accelerate harder than a 15-year-old V10 car with a single-clutch transmission, like the LFA. You’d have to reduce the power and torque to make an EV feel similar. This is something a German automaker might not fundamentally understand (and BMW has been outspoken against), but Lexus isn’t only chasing speed.

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“From the outside, this vehicle is as quiet as any other BEV. But the driver is able to experience all the sensations of a manual transmission vehicle.”

“We are creating the i-manual drive for the fun factor. For us, it’s OK to make the purposefully, intently slower,” Terada-san explained. He then showed us a torque graph of the RZ in each of its eight simulated gears, which were designed to mimic the ratios of an RC F. “We actually hold back the engine torque because you really don’t need it,” he added.

Here’s why this has some big potential: In theory, you could click a button in the car, and suddenly it would sound, shift, and match the acceleration of a naturally aspirated V8. Then, when you want the feeling of a heavily boosted inline-six, you could switch it with a simple mode change.

Why Eight Gears?

In the RZ, the M-Mode is able to simulate eight virtual gears and play a sound through the speakers while accelerating. But Terada-san said Lexus is not limited by having only one sound or eight gears. That number was chosen because it was easier to replicate from the RC F.

“We could throw in as many gears as we wanted to, for example, if we wanted to do a close ratio,” he told us, hinting at a sportier potential for this technology. “If you had 10 gears, though, you would constantly be shifting up and down.”

As for the sound that’s played during acceleration in the RZ, Terada said it’s meant to “take the best of both characteristics” from ICE and EV, and combine them into one. In the future, though, Lexus could mimic the sound of the LFA’s V10 or the RC F’s V8, a feature we’d very much like to see. The RZ wasn’t the right product to debut a feature like this, but we imagine it could appear in a more enthusiast-focused product.

Lexus has no shortage of new cars coming, and while we may not see a production version of the Electrified Sport Concept as soon as we thought, vehicles like that would be natural choices for LFA-mimicking experiences. But there may be others. The current Lexus IS ends production this year, and a replacement will likely have an electric variant, at least as an option. A sporty IS EV that sounds and behaves like the IS 500 would be stellar, especially if it has the performance to back it up.

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