Manual gearboxes are slowly going out of use, and Ford made sure to offer fans of this form of transmission its experience in electric cars. The American manufacturer has registered a patent in the US for a simulated manual transmission lever.

The patent, called “Shifter Assembly For Electric Vehicle”, was published on March 20 and describes a classic gear lever, which is fixed to the floor like in the old Ford Mustang. However, instead of connecting to the manual transmission, the lever only transmits signals to an electronic controller, which changes the engine torque. More precisely, the driver moves the lever as if changing gears, while the electronics imitate the pauses in power to create the feeling of a manual transmission of a car with an internal combustion engine.

Better connoisseurs of the automotive industry will remember that Hyundai previously offered a similar effect in its Ioniq 5 N model with the help of paddles, while Toyota is testing an electric car with a clutch simulator and even the ability to turn off the car. However, Ford has taken a different approach, installing small motors in the base of the gear lever, which provide resistance for a full experience.

This idea emerged two years ago, and whether it will be implemented and used for production cars is currently unknown.

Source: Ford