Due to the rise of environmental awareness, the emission regulations are becoming increasingly stringent. In order to meet the requirements of regulations, manufacturers must increase the proportion of the new energy vehicles products. Therefore, electric vehicles (EVs) with zero emission and system simplicity have become the focus of attention. A 2-speed transmission for EV is presented in this article, which extends the extreme speed performance, increases the starting torque and improves the overall efficiency when compared to the single-speed gearbox. The prototype is installed in a Nissan Leaf EV to test the shifting performance, and the relationship among the speed of shifting actuator, shifting position, and shifting time is revealed. Furthermore, based on these test data, a vehicle-level model has been built for the shifting parameter and performance simulations, such as slew rate, speed difference, shifting time and jerk.