For anyone even vaguely familiar with the current landscape, it’s clear that electric vehicles have quietly taken over the sensible side of driving. They’re smooth, quiet, efficient, and for most people, that’s exactly what daily driving should be. But for enthusiasts? Well, the story’s a little different. Most EVs just don’t hit the same nerve as a manual-equipped ICE car screaming through its rev range. Automakers know this too, and they’ve started tinkering. Ford, it seems, is the latest to join the “manual EV” experiment.

Toyota has been working on a simulated manual transmission for future EVs since at least 2022, and Hyundai has famously replicated a dual-clutch transmission in the popular Ioniq 5 N. Now, a recently published patent from Ford shows that it, too is developing a fake stick shift designed for EVs.

Watch: Toyota’s Six-Speed Manual For EVs Feels Just Like The Real Thing, Say Testers

The application, first filed in the US back in September 2023 before being published on March 20, surfaced publicly a couple of weeks ago, catching the attention of Jalopnik. It describes and depicts a shifter that uses several actuators, vertical drive posts, vertical guide posts, and motors to simulate gear shifts. While that all sounds very complex, what it means is that the shifter could be configured to simulate any kind of H-pattern ‘box with different numbers of fake gears. In theory, the setup could also allow for simply sequential up and down shifting.

This isn’t just a novelty, either. Ford also mentions the use of haptic feedback to give drivers a more tactile experience. The patent even acknowledges the elephant in the room: EVs just don’t provide the same kind of physical connection that drivers get from combustion-powered cars. As Ford puts it, electric vehicles “lack operator to vehicle physical feedback that is advantageous in conventional motor vehicles.”

Will It Ever Hit the Road?

Of course, despite Ford making this patent application over 18 months ago, there’s no guarantee it will bring it into production. Adding a fake shifter would only make sense if the EV itself is a sporty model. After all, no one is going to buy an Explorer EV with a stick shift. However, if Ford does decide to eventually launch a true electric Mustang (not like the Mach-E…), or perhaps an electric hot hatch, it could be well-suited to a shifter like this. Until then, it’s likely a clever idea stuck in the theoretical lane.

Stellantis is experimenting with multi-speed transmissions to improve the efficiency of electric vehicles, a recently surfaced patent filing indicates. Published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Feb. 27, 2025, but originally filed by the automaker in 2023, the patent application deals specifically with adding a second...