Toyota EV mimics manual transmission with feel of gear sticks, roaring engine
In accordance with prophecy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons
I just read the reason for this is that if you are accelerating hard, the car would drone very loudly, which is not the sound one would expect from hard acceleration. You would feel the acceleration, while the default noise would sound like you are at a steady pace. By imitating gears, the steady drone is mitigated to some degree, and you won't be tricked into thinking you are not accelerating.
Why would you want this? One of the thing I love about EVs are the single speed transmissions. The drive is smooth and lack of noise peaceful. Why would you want shift-jerk and emulated RPM variations in a technology that doesn't need it?