Volkswagen Might Have Just Killed The Manual Gearbox

According to a report, German carmaker Volkswagen will stop offering a manual gearbox on some of its cars from 2023 onwards. Moreover, from 2030 onwards, all VW cars sold in the USA, Europe and China will be available only with an automatic transmission. 

The reason behind this move, as we understand, is to cut costs. Simply put, the future is electric, and electric cars do not require manual transmissions. Therefore, Volkswagen does not want to keep researching and developing technology that has no place in the future.

The 2023 Passat and Tiguan (both of which will undergo a generational update) will reportedly be the first VW models to bite the bullet. Slowly and steadily, others will follow.

What happens to India? The report didn’t mention anything related to India, but if Volkswagen stops R&D for the manual transmission, it is safe to say that India too will follow in that direction. 

However, the US, European and Chinese markets are highly developed car markets, and a good chunk of the automotive sales in these countries is of automatic transmission models. The Indian market has warmed up to the two-pedal setup in the last few years, but as such it still has some way to go before sales of automatic transmission models start outnumbering their manual counterparts. 

As far as other carmakers go, cutting costs is the norm across the board. We wouldn’t be surprised if other manufacturers took a leaf out of VW’s book and altogether stopped developing manual transmission-equipped models in the near future.

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