- BMW M’s boss says manuals may not be around for much longer.
- Technical challenges and low demand make manuals harder to justify.
- BMW still sells the M2, M3, M4 and Z4 with manuals.
Bad news for BMW M fans: the manual gearbox may not be around for much longer. Although roughly 40 percent of M customers opted for the manual gearbox in 2025 (according to our own data), BMW’s M boss is not convinced that the gearbox is worth keeping alive.
Head of BMW M, Frank van Meel, told Australia’s AutoSales that, from a technical point of view, the manual “doesn’t really make sense”. Van Meel notes that the company will undoubtedly keep the manual for its hardcore fans for a few more years, but it may not have a future in the BMW M lineup.
‘It will be quite difficult to develop completely new gearboxes in the future, because the segment in the market is quite small and suppliers are not very keen on that.
So we’re still happy with the manuals we have, and we plan to keep them for years to come, but in the future it’s probably going to be more difficult to keep the manuals alive, especially over the next decade.”
That’s not the first time we’ve heard that from Van Meel. In 2024, the head of BMW M told customers that if they wanted a manual M model, they better buy it now. Van Meel suggests that improving technology and declining customer demand are making it harder to justify manual transmission cars, even within the M range.
But don’t worry, you still have time. BMW currently offers four manual transmission vehicles: the M2, the M3, the M4 and the Z4 with the Handschalter package. Sadly, the Z4 will be gone by the end of 2026, and with BMW preparing a new 3 Series and M3, it’s unclear what the fate of the manual transmission might be for that model.
70
Taking Motor1s: Long live the manual. While fewer customers are interested in the old DIY shifter, doing away with the manual transmission option on its M cars could be a big mistake.
#BMW #boss #manual #correct