Ford could offer manual gear shift for EVs

In an ICE car, a gear shift would do what the name suggests – it would allow the driver to change gears depending on where he or she was driving. Ford’s invention may look like and sit in the same place as a gear shift for combustion engine vehicles, but there are no gears to be changed in an electric vehicle. With the Ford patent, the ‘gearshift’ works purely electronically, and only simulates the gear changes.

The carmaker applied for the patent on 20 March at the US Patent Office under the number 2025/0092947. It says the lever “manages the flow of electrical energy delivered by the battery pack, controlling the speed of the motors and the torque each motor produces.” In other words: this stick shift can alter the power output of a vehicle’s electric motor. The gear lever can be moved in a classic H pattern or sequentially by pushing it back and forth in a shift gate, thus simulating gear changes.

Moreover, Ford says that its development can be used in any car – battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, hybrids without a plug, and fuel cell vehicles.

It might sound crazy, but Ford is not alone in this. Other carmakers have come up with similar ideas. In 2022, Toyota was working on a manual transmission simulation for electric cars, including a clutch pedal. Here, too, it adjusted the amount of torque the electric motor can deliver.

The goal was the same then as it is now: give the driver the feeling of sitting in a “conventional” car, though that term is debatable. Ford writes in its patent application that “as electric vehicles increase in power, operators may desire alternative modes and capabilities of engagement with the electric vehicle.”

freepatentsonline.com(patent; PDF), insideevs.com