Switching yourself until the end of this decade
The manual gearbox dies out earlier in some brands than the fuel engine. Not at BMW, because it wants to stick to the manual transmission until 2030.
With the rise of the electric car, the manual gearbox is of course disappearing little by little, but cars with a fuel engine are increasingly only available with an automatic transmission. Not surprising, because the automatic gearbox is also gaining popularity over the manual gearbox. Still, driving a car with a manual transmission is still quite the end for some, especially when it comes to sportier cars. Cars from BMW’s M division, for example. That will continue to offer manual boxes for quite a few years.
That explains the Dutchman Frank van Meel, the head of BMW M, opposite Carbuzz. He refers to the brand new BMW M2, but also to the M3 and M4. According to him, the trio will just stick to the manual gearbox until they call it quits. He talks about ‘the end of this decade’. Probably the M3 and M4 have already been retired for a year or two and the M2 is really the last of the Mohicans. Van Meel’s colleague at BMW M, Timo Resch, who is responsible for making an inventory of customer requirements, says that there is still plenty of demand for manual transmissions. “The fans asked for it and got it,” said Resch.
BMW therefore follows a clearly different path than competitor Mercedes-Benz. Earlier this year, it announced that it will be phasing out the remaining manual bins by 2023.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl