Clutch, shift, accelerate: this will soon be over, at least for the German car manufacturer Volkswagen. VW only wants to sell new cars with automatic transmissions in the future.
The VW Tiguan will be the first model completely without coupling from 2023 – and the famous Passat will follow in the same year with a purely automatic transmission, reports the «image» citing a report in “Auto Motor Sport” specialist magazine.
By displacing the clutch, VW is saving the costs for the further development of traditional transmission technology. Other vehicle series from VW are also to be offered without manual transmission in the next model generations. From 2030, there will no longer be any models with manual transmissions.
Only 32 percent manual cars
VW is gradually transforming itself into an e-car seller – and these vehicles get by without a manual transmission. According to the plans, the group wants to sell exclusively electric vehicles by 2035 at the latest.
Moving away from the clutch towards the automatic transmission is a general trend, according to “Bild”: According to the market analyst “Jato”, the market for automobiles with automatic transmission is growing rapidly, the proportion of manual transmissions is falling continuously. At VW, only 139 of 353 models are said to have a manual transmission (share: 39.4 percent). With a total of 5838 models from all manufacturers, the proportion of switching is only 32 percent.
With the end of the manual transmission, Volkswagen follows the manufacturer Mercedes. He had announced some time ago that it would no longer offer manual transmissions. Here the counter rate is even lower than at VW. (ct)