Most M badged vehicles from Bavaria are available with three pedals, for now...
Frank van Meel, the big boss of BMW M, mentioned to Autocar that the manual transmission might not live on much longer. “From a technical standpoint, the future doesn’t look bright for manual gearboxes,” van Meel said. "The DCT and auto ’boxes are faster and they have better fuel consumption."
But what about from an engagement standpoint, what about the consumers who still want one? "It’s difficult to say we’ll stick to the manual, but we still have a big fan community for manuals and we are not going to take away something the customer wants to have,”
In other news van Meel also said the M division is exploring the potential of electrification in future models. The likely application is with electric turbocharging to increase throttle response. "We’ve already taken steps to improve throttle response with our V8, but we can improve further still with electric turbos. The philosophy has to be right to fit in with M, but yes, this is technology we’re looking at if we can make it fit.”
