BMW M Boss Says Do Not Count Out The Manual Gearbox Just Yet

The BMW manual gearbox is not dead yet, and the Bavarian marque wants the world to know it. Despite M division chief Frank van Meel openly admitting that a three-pedal setup “doesn’t really make sense from an engineering standpoint,” the company is quietly working behind the scenes to keep the clutch pedal in its performance stable. Sylvia Neubauer, Vice President of Customer, Brand, and Sales for BMW M, has confirmed that engineers are developing a solution to ensure the manual survives even as the brand’s turbocharged inline-six engines continue to pile on more power.

The core challenge is straightforward. Manual transmissions simply cannot handle the same levels of torque that an automatic gearbox shrugs off with ease. Building a beefier stick shift to cope with the added muscle is technically possible, but the business case is thin when sales volumes for manuals have been falling for years. One potential workaround already in play involves capping engine output for manual-equipped models. The current BMW M2, for instance, delivers 50 Nm less torque with a six-speed manual than it does with the automatic, a trade-off designed to protect the transmission’s longevity.

The road ahead for three-pedal fans is not entirely clear, but it is not a dead end either. BMW has confirmed that the next-generation M3 will retain a six-cylinder combustion engine and is expected to arrive around 2028, meaning it could remain on sale well into the following decade. Whether that car will offer a manual option is still unknown, but the M2 and M4 coupes are likely to stay in production until close to the end of the decade, giving enthusiasts a few more years to park a six-speed BMW M car on their driveways.

The headwinds facing the manual gearbox extend well beyond simple buyer demand. Tighter emissions regulations across Europe are pushing manufacturers towards automatics, which deliver lower CO2 figures and help brands dodge steep fleet penalty fines. Supplier appetite for producing small batches of manual gearboxes is also fading fast, and modern driver-assistance systems are overwhelmingly engineered around automatic transmissions, making the stick shift an increasingly awkward fit in new vehicle architectures.

For now, BMW’s lineup still offers a manual in the M2, M3 and M4, though the Z4 M40i has just rolled off the production line for the final time without a replacement in the pipeline. If you have been sitting on the fence about buying a BMW with three pedals, the window is narrowing. The brand clearly wants to keep the manual alive, but the forces lined up against it are formidable, and no amount of engineering ingenuity can outrun the economics of a shifting market forever.