BMW M Boss Says the Manual Isn't Dead, but Keeping It Is Getting Hard

BMW's performance division is not ready to bury the manual gearbox, but its leadership is making clear that keeping one is getting harder. Speaking to BMWBLOG during the M Festival in Shanghai, BMW M boss van Meel said the manual is still alive while acknowledging that the engineering and supply picture around it is shifting.

The demand is real. Roughly half of the G87 BMW M2 cars sold in the United States still come with a six-speed manual, a strong showing for a model that could easily have been sold almost entirely with an automatic. For enthusiasts who want a clutch pedal in a car built to be driven hard, that figure is the reason the option has survived this long.

The obstacles are mostly technical and commercial. Van Meel pointed to 48-volt electrical systems, which are spreading through modern powertrains, as one complication. Stronger engines are another, since each new round of power adds work for a gearbox that was not designed around it. The supplier base is also getting smaller, which leaves fewer companies to build the parts a manual needs.

None of that means the stick is about to disappear. It does mean that keeping a manual in the lineup is becoming a deliberate choice rather than the default, and BMW M's answer so far is that the option still has a place. Whether that holds as electrification and performance targets tighten is the question buyers and enthusiasts will be watching.