The German car giant is keen to continue offering three-pedal transmissions in its M cars, but pressure on all forms of petrol-powered performance models threatens the manual’s future.
The days of manual gearboxes being available in BMW M cars could be numbered – despite the company’s interest in keeping it alive.
“You have to stick with the torque and the maximum power output that the manual gearbox can handle,” BMW M CEO Frank van Meel told Australian media.
“You can see that it’s going to be quite difficult in the future to develop completely new manual gearboxes because the segment in the market is quite small and the suppliers are not so keen on doing something like that.”
The six-speed manual gearbox developed by ZF and used in M cars, the same manufacturer as its automatic gearboxes, is currently only rated to 600Nm of torque, and sees engines tuned slightly lower in manufacturer fitment to ensure reliability.
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This has seen the manual only fitted to non-CS M2s and non-Competition M3s, with the new M2 CS sporting a torque upgrade to 650Nm.
Despite this, BMW says that it’s still committed to retaining the manual for as long as the brand can sustain it.
“We’re still happy with the manuals we have, and we plan to keep them for the next couple of years, but in the future, probably it’s going to be more difficult to keep the manuals alive, especially in the next decade.”
Offering the manual transmission has been seen as a success for the brand, with one of its biggest markets, the United States, offering a near 50 per cent split between manuals and automatics for one of its most popular M cars, the M2.
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Although being limited by power output is a big issue, economy and emissions make it even harder for brands to justify keeping it. The BMW M2 sees efficiency rated at 9.7L/100km for the automatic, but a manual gearbox brings that up to 10.1L/100km.
BMW M understands the limitations, yet it seems that the brand is still interested in the prospect if it works out in construction.
“From an engineering standpoint, the manual doesn’t really make sense because it limits you in torque in some gears for performance, and also in fuel consumption.
“But actually, from an emotional standpoint and from the customer standpoint, it is a very interesting technology, and a lot of people still love manuals. So that’s why we kept them, and we intend to keep them as long as possible.”
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