The end of the manual transmission! Will Volkswagen and Mercedes abandon them soon?

The photo is taken from the site: https://www.carscoops.com/2012/10/gm-and-ford-to-cooperate-on-joint/amp/

There are drivers who don't like automatic transmissions. "Because it's too expensive, because it degrades performance and increases fuel consumption, because it takes away the pleasure of driving and controlling the car, because it breaks down." Is it so?

In fact, almost all of these hackneyed arguments have long lost their relevance. Modern automatic transmissions react and shift gears faster than a better driver could do, in practice they actually improve performance and do not cause increased fuel consumption. And if someone wants to "play" with the gears on their own, then many "machines" allow you to switch to manual mode. Thus, there is basically only a question of costs - and they largely depend on the scale and optimization of production. The more cars with automatic transmission, the cheaper they become! In addition, manufacturers can save billions by abandoning the design, implementation and production of mechanical transmissions on new models.

It is worth knowing that since the introduction of the new rules for the approval, measurement of emissions and fuel consumption (WLTP), each engine and transmission combination requires separate tests, which are also expensive. Otherwise, the demand for the manual transmission is still constantly falling for several reasons.

First of all, manufacturers refuse to produce cheap A-segment cars, because the income from cheap cars is small, and current safety and emissions requirements effectively prevent the production of cheap cars for the European market.

Secondly, buyers are becoming more and more lazy and expect more and more comfort. The more expensive the model, the lower the percentage of cars with a manual transmission. Above the middle class, automatic transmissions have long been the norm, not the exception. Drivers are already so busy with electronic gadgets or games with smartphones that they do not have enough hands to control the gearbox.

Thirdly, technical issues. In times of widespread hybridization and progressive electrification of drives, manual transmissions lose their meaning of existence. Even in simple hybrids, they do not allow for maximum performance, and they are simply not suitable for plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars. In addition, computer-controlled automatic transmissions contribute to achieving the necessary low emissions due to the optimal choice of gear ratio depending on the engine load and its characteristics.

So we may love manual transmissions, but... their end is near. Yes, they will probably survive in a few exotic models and in cheap cars produced for markets with lower requirements. In Europe, they will soon be removed from sales!

The first attempts to recall manual transmissions were already noticeable in 2019, when many manufacturers, due to new homologation requirements, were forced to limit the supply of models and versions, or at least temporarily suspend the sale of some of them - to fulfill their official release. Many manual transmission versions fell victim to these cuts as demand for them was lower.

Last year, it was reported that Mercedes would soon abandon the manual transmission - arguing this with technical and economic issues. Anyway, the percentage of cars sold by this manufacturer is getting smaller and smaller every year, the vast majority of new cars were still ordered with automatic transmissions.

Now the German automotive media have received information that Volkswagen also had to decide on the same step. According to the reports of the German edition "Auto Motor & Sport", for example, the next generation Volkswagen Tiguan (the launch of which is announced in 2023) will no longer offer any engines with a manual transmission, and in the same year manual transmissions will also be excluded from the offer in the Passat model, and then in smaller models of the concern's cars. This may mean that cars will become more expensive because the current basic versions of many models will drop out of the offer.