The gear lever also promises to offer haptic comments, adding to the driving experience
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by Brad Anderson
9 hours ago
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- The Ford patent shows a simulated gear lever made to imitate the traditional speed change movement in electric vehicles.
- The system uses actuators and engines to recreate tactile feedback from an H gearbox.
- While Ford has patented the system, there is no guarantee that it will enter into future production models.
For anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the current landscape, it is clear that electric vehicles have quietly taken over the reasonable side of driving. They are smooth, calm, effective and for most people, that’s exactly what daily driving should be. But for enthusiasts? Well, the story is a little different. Most electric vehicles simply do not strike the same nerve as a car of manual equipped ice cream that screams through its range of diet. The car manufacturers also know this and they have started to tinker. Ford, it seems, is the last to join the “manual” experience.
Toyota has been working on a simulated manual transmission for future electric vehicles for at least 2022, and Hyundai has reproduced a double clutch transmission in the popular Ioniq 5 N. Now a recently published patent of Ford shows that it also develops a false change of stick designed for electric vehicles.
Watch: Toyota’s six -speed manual for electric vehicles looks like the real thing, let’s say the testers
The demand, submitted for the first time in the United States in September 2023 before being published on March 20, surfaced publicly a few weeks ago, attracting the attention of Jalopnik. It describes and represents a gear lever that uses several actuators, vertical driving posts, vertical guide posts and motors to simulate gear changes. Although all of this seems very complex, what it means is that the gear lever could be configured to simulate any type of H-Pattern ‘box with different numbers of false gears. In theory, the configuration could also allow a very sequential top to bottom offset.
It’s not just a novelty either. Ford also mentions the use of haptic comments to offer drivers a more tactile experience. The patent even recognizes the elephant in the room: electric vehicles simply do not provide the same type of physical connection as drivers obtain combustion cars. As Ford says, electric vehicles “lack the physical feedback of vehicles which is advantageous in conventional motor vehicles”.
Will it never take the road?
Of course, although Ford made this patent application over 18 months ago, there is no guarantee that it will put it in production. The addition of a false gear lever would only be logical if the EV itself is a sports model. After all, no one will buy an EV explorer with a change of stick. However, if Ford decides to possibly launch a real electric Mustang (not like the Mach-E …), or perhaps a hot electric hatch, it could be well suited to a gear lever like this. Until then, it is probably an intelligent idea stuck in the theoretical path.
