Volkswagen plans to phase out all manual transmissions by 2030
After a scandal as costly as that of diesel engines, Volkswagen must reduce its production costs to a minimum, despite a rapid energy transformation in the automotive sector. This leaves very little room for the manual transmission, an element that has long set Volkswagen vehicles apart when it comes to driving. The manufacturer has just announced his death warrant.
None of this is surprising, however, considering the fact that Volkswagen has just invested 73 billion euros (CAN $ 109 billion) in the development of new technologies, including the production of electric vehicles at the plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. By 2030, the automaker aims for 50% of its sales to come from electric vehicles.
This does not bode well for the manual gearbox, which is already being retired from several manufacturers. For Volkswagen, the withdrawal of the manual transmission allows it to reduce its production costs even more, an element on which it has been relying more in recent years, visible in the quality of its products.
In any case, we can already see the trend of Volkswagen within its range. At the time of this writing, only the Golf GTI, R, Jetta and Jetta GLI offer the manual, while the other models are SUVs with automatic transmission. And given that the Jetta could well be phased out of the lineup soon, only the supercharged versions of the Golf equipped with this type of gearbox would be left.
German media Auto Motor und Sport mentions having received information which states that the manual gearbox will be totally disappeared at Volkswagen by the end of this decade. Volkswagen plans to make it disappear from 2023, even for underdeveloped markets where it sells more simplistic vehicles equipped with a manual transmission.
But until then, driving enthusiasts can still rejoice in the presence of a manual transmission in the Golf GTI and R, which enter their eighth generation in 2022. These models have the highest rate of manual transmission buyers at Volkswagen, accounting for 40% of Golf R sales in North America.
