Electric cars, unlike gasoline cars, do not need a transmission, but they would greatly benefit from one such as ours.
Speed variation of electric motors is accomplished by varying the frequency of the electrical supply (in the case of an AC motor), or its voltage (in the case of a DC motor). Both cases require a complex and expensive electronic device called an electronic speed controller. These devices become impractically large and inefficient at high power levels.
Such systems have another important disadvantage compared to a mechanical speed control system. Electronic speed controllers vary only the speed of the motor, not its torque. It is often mistakenly thought that this is not an issue in the case of electric motors since, unlike internal combustion engines they are capable of delivering as much torque at low speed as they do at high speeds, and therefore practical electric drives can be designed even without the torque multiplication that results from a mechanical means of speed variation. However this ability comes at a great cost in inefficiency. The high torque needed to accelerate an electric vehicle from rest during the initial period of acceleration imposes a very high current draw upon the batteries, and the size of the motor needed is directly proportional to the amount of initial torque required. Once the vehicle is moving, and as it achieves cruising speed, the reduced demand is such that a much smaller motor could suffice to do the job.
If the initial torque requirement could be met by using gearing to achieve torque multiplication (i.e. a mechanical speed controller such as the Rolowitz Drive), three benefits would be gained: the size of the electric motor and the initial amount of current draw could be drastically reduced; the reduced demand on the batteries will result in increased range; and the expensive. inefficient electronic speed control would not be needed.