ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,330,506, issued on June 17, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Toyota, Japan).

"Shifting device for electric vehicle having virtual manual transmission system" was invented by Yoichiro Isami (Mishima, Japan), Hiroyuki Amano (Susono, Japan), Takayuki Oshima (Susono, Japan), Makoto Takano (Sunto-gun, Japan), Yuta Tsukada (Sunto-gun, Japan), Kiyosuke Hayamizu (Susono, Japan) and Hiroaki Kodera (Susono, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A shifting device for an electric vehicle having a virtual manual transmission system, that is configured to realize a variety of shift patterns and torque characteristics. The shifting device comprises:...