Hybrid Systems Complicate BMW's Efforts to Keep Manual Gearboxes in Its Sports Cars

German carmaker BMW is one of the few automakers that still offers sporty models with a manual gearbox. The option remains available in models such as the M2, M3 and M4. The company has not yet abandoned this transmission, but its future is becoming increasingly uncertain, and hybrid systems make the effort to keep it harder.

What threatens manual gearboxes

According to the source, several factors are driving manual gearboxes toward extinction:

• rising engine torque;
• low demand across the industry;
• suppliers' unwillingness to keep producing such transmissions.

The source text was published in abridged form, so further details about BMW's plans and the influence of hybrid systems are not currently available.