In today’s edition of What the Heck, we have the strange case of Ford wanting to put what is essentially a fake manual shifter in its electric vehicles. The company has secured a patent that aims to bring back a traditional element of driving – the feel of shifting gears.

Ford’s new electric vehicles could soon see a retro addition: manual gear shifters. A patent application from the automaker published this month details a gear shift for electric cars that mimics the appearance of a traditional stick shift — but without any gears to actualy switch between.

A Louisville Ford plant will undergo changes to prepare to build an electric vehicle. The retooling phase is expected to create worker layoffs.

The sheer size of Ford's business is huge, as evidenced by its $185 billion in revenue in 2024. To put this into perspective, Nvidia generated $130 billion in revenue last year. However, Ford stock trades at a cheap valuation with a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.9.

The "From America, For America" campaign that offers what is known as "A Plan" pricing is expected to run through June 2.

And while most of the vehicles Ford makes are at US plants that won’t immediately be subject to tariffs, some of the automaker’s hottest sellers in the quarter are produced outside the United States.

I want Ford to buyback my vehicle so I can take the money I put down on it and go buy a reliable vehicle from somewhere else,” said Jason Turner.

For many years, Icon 4×4 has been building some of the finest restomodded Ford Broncos. It’s also resisted the trend of turning classics like the Bronco into EVs. At least, until now. After more than 5,000 hours of engineering and development, the US firm has launched its EV Bronco program.