BMW’s M division is world renowned for great driver’s cars. The in-house tuner shop builds high-performance versions of BMW’s ordinary cars (as well as the BMW XM, which has no non-M equivalent).
Enthusiasts know M cars for both their track performance and their engaging nature. If you love to drive and feel a visceral connection to the car, an M may be the best dancing partner you’ll ever have.
For decades, that athleticism depended on some of the best manual transmissions on the market. No more.
Top Gear reports that the recently-revealed 2023 BMW M2 “is highly likely to be the last manual M car.”
Double-Clutch Going Away, Too
Dirk Hacker, Head of Development at BMW M, told TG that M is moving away from dual-clutch transmissions as well. “The double clutch, from BMW M’s point of view these days, it’s gone,” he said. “It’s now manual or automatic, and automatic electrified for the future.”
“Electrified” doesn’t necessarily mean pure electric. It’s an industry term that refers to both electric cars and plug-in hybrids. So future M cars might still have internal combustion engines that work in concert with electric motors and charge their battery from a wall plug.
M product planners have already said the current M2 will be the last non-electrified M car. So, if future electrified M products will use automatic transmissions only, and no non-electrified M products are planned, then M2 has the last M-built stick.
The M2 is new enough to last several years in production. History tells us to expect an even higher-performance M2 Competition version within a year or two. But gas-powered M2 production will wind down a few years after, and the car could then get an electrified replacement.
BMW Won’t Build a Stick Shift for Electric Cars
M won’t follow Toyota and its Lexus arm into developing a manual transmission for electric cars. “I think it could be done,” Hacker said, “but we will not do that.”
Toyota plans to market a stick shift for electric cars as soon as 2026. Prototypes reportedly simulate shifts, complete with shifting sounds. It will even stall under certain circumstances, Toyota says.
