Volkswagen will start phasing out the manual gearbox by 2023 in Europe with plans to discontinue the stick shift altogether in major markets such as the U.S. and even China by 2030.
The report comes out of German automotive publication Auto Motor und Sport which outlined the timeline of the manual transmission’s demise. While lack of customer interest is a factor (at least for markets such as the U.S.), the bigger reason is down to Volkswagen’s shift to full EVs.
According to the report, the all-new Tiguan will be among the first to lose the manual gearbox option as it heads towards a mid-cycle facelift.
With almost all EVs having just one gear (some, like the Porsche Taycan have two), the manual gearbox will certainly not survive the transition towards all-electric mobility. This also ties in to Volkswagen’s plan to stop selling new cars with combustion engines between 2033 to 2035 with 70 percent of new car sales being EVs by 2030.
When will VW PH bring in the Id.3 and Id.4? We badly need EVs to reduce our in-city air pollution.
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