The second-generation BMW M2 is available with a six-speed manual transmission but interestingly, it is an option that costs £545 in the UK and €500 in Germany. This is rather unusual as automatics have traditionally been more expensive than stick shifts.
During a recent interview, BMW M chief executive Frank van Meel revealed the main reason why the manual costs more comes down to volumes. The vast majority of the brand’s models are sold exclusively with automatic transmissions and just a handful, like the M2, even offer a manual.
“For us, it’s quite an effort,” van Meel told Car Throttle. “The manual is slower and results in a higher fuel consumption [and] sometimes has also a lower top speed, so the manual actually from an engineering standpoint made no real sense anymore.”
Read: BMW M Says It’s Done With DCTs, Manual Gearbox Will Die After The M2
Van Meel then referred to the manual transmission as “more like a heritage thing,” adding that it is only offered because some customers demanded it.
“We had a lot of customers that said, well, I want to ride the beast and I want to show that I can do that and I need a manual transmission,” he described.
Unfortunately, BMW’s manual won’t be around forever. In June, the head of development for BMW M, Dirk Hacker, revealed that the current M2 will likely be the company’s last model offered with a stick shift, suggesting that it will die out when the current M2 is axed around 2030.
“It’s not only a decision of BMW, it’s also a decision of the suppliers,” Hacker said. “If you take a look around, you will see the future for manual gearbox suppliers will decrease. So I’m not sure we will have the possibility in the future – but in the future means six, seven years in forecast.”
