How Bad is it to Downshift with no Clutch

[shocker]

I did it by mistake today, and I went to 4 from 3 without clutching.  It was buttery smooth, way better than my power off, upshift, and then power on.

[Shinysideup]

Very very bad!

Truthfully, I don't know.

I too have done what you did accidentally and it was very smooth. My SWAG is that IF your throttle is just in the precise position, so there's no forces of acceleration or deceleration at the moment of shifting, all will be well.

I just don't trust my degree of throttle control to achieve that state every time I shift, so I follow the manual and use the clutch, though I do clutchless upshifts most of the time.

[Richard230]

My guess is that due to the low inertia of the electric motor and its drive train, downshifting without using the clutch is not likely to cause any problems.  I would think that if you don't feel a clunk, or hear any loud noises, no real stress is being placed on the transmission.

[flar]

I upshift without the clutch pretty much every time.  It's very easy to make it smooth by just backing off a bit on the throttle.

I downshift without the clutch a lot, but not every time.  It can work very smoothly if you are coming to a stop and back off on the regen a little, but it doesn't always work as well as upshifting, especially if you have multiple gears to shift.  I sometimes do it in traffic, but since it doesn't always work I don't rely on it in that case.  If it fails to work it usually just resists and you can tell without making any crunching noises.  It usually either doesn't go, or it goes smoothly.

As far as I can tell, especially on the upshifts, it snicks so smoothly into the next gear that I can't imagine it is doing anything bad to the transmission.  Nothing odd showed up at my break-in transmission oil change, but it will be more interesting to see the first maintenance oil change shows any evidence of unusual wear...