Shifting to N while during motion may damage transmission?

I was reading through the manual and on page 194 it says that shifting to N while vehicle is in motion could damage the transmission? Is that right? I keep hearing in hyper miling techniques to shift to N depending on road conditions....

cashcow said:

I was reading through the manual and on page 194 it says that shifting to N while vehicle is in motion could damage the transmission? Is that right? I keep hearing in hyper miling techniques to shift to N depending on road conditions....

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There's no transmission, nor are there any gear sets or synchronizer rings being mechanically moved. All the gears mesh all the time, even in Neutral or even Reverse (the motor changes direction).

Neutral merely removes power to the three phase induction motor. You can safely put the car in Neutral at any time, while recognizing that the car might roll (move) if you put it in Neutral while parked. This could result in injury or death.

So, it's complete and total BS.

ive done it a few times while not stopped and nothing bad happened.

i've even by accident put it in reverse while it was going forward and that also did nothing bad.

How safe is it to accidentally place the rav4 ev in reverse while moving forward at speed? I think I have herd that with an ice transmission the trans can explode? well not realyl explode be heavily damaged. Ok, so no transmission on the rav4 ev but what about the little gears it has inside? Is it a gear box with gear oil?

cashcow said:

How safe is it to accidentally place the rav4 ev in reverse while moving forward at speed? I think I have herd that with an ice transmission the trans can explode? well not realyl explode be heavily damaged. Ok, so no transmission on the rav4 ev but what about the little gears it has inside? Is it a gear box with gear oil?

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In an ICE the motor always turns in the same direction.
In order to go reverse you need an extra gear to reverse the direction
With an EV, going reverse means you just reverse the rotation of the electro motor.
No extra gear needed. So this never _can_ lead to any damage.
Except for huge currents if the car is still going forward and you apply the voltage to go reverse.
But I am pretty sure the (tesla) software prevents that from happening.

fromport said:

But I am pretty sure the (tesla) software prevents that from happening.

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6mph or under will allow switching motor direction (from Drive to Reverse)

TonyWilliams said:

6mph or under will allow switching motor direction (from Drive to Reverse)

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I think that the car pops into Neutral if you try to shift from D to R at higher speeds.

Thank you guys I assume this feature works also if you accidentally press the P to Park button by mistake while at speed? Transmission (or well maybe I should just say rav4 ev) moves to N?

I like to use N when I am coming up to a stop light from a distance sometimes if I feel that regenerative breaking at D would slow the car down too much because there is still a good amount of distance left to the light. Yet I don't want to accelerate any more than what the rav4 ev is already doing.

Out of curiosity does the motor still spin while in N and no accelerator pedal input? I recall getting a message saying the rav4 ev pedal is being accelerated (Or something) while in N and pressing the accelerator. I just wonder if the motor spins while in N? Kind of like how an ice engine does....

cashcow said:

Out of curiosity does the motor still spin while in N and no accelerator pedal input?

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yes
no clutch, so engine is still spinning.
Like you said, it just isn't doing any regen

cashcow said:

... I just wonder if the motor spins while in N? Kind of like how an ice engine does....

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Not exactly how an ICE engine does. There is no actual transmission in the car so the motor is ALWAYS connected to the drive wheels. So in N, the electronics simply allow to the motor to spin freely to give you a "neutral". An ICE engine spins while in neutral because the engine is running, the electric motor spins in neutral if and only if the drive wheels are rolling.