Electric cars could mean end of the road for manual gearbox

The traditional manual gearbox is set to reach the end of the road within five years.

The number of new mainstream models that are manuals has more than halved in just six years, new research shows.

Car makers that no longer offer any new showroom models with manual gearboxes include Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and Lexus.

Out of 300 models currently available to UK buyers, only 89 are manuals – 18 per cent fewer than last year.

At its current rate of decline, experts say that by 2029 the manual gearbox could be all but extinct like chokes, cassette players and wind-up windows.

Switch to electric cars

The demise of the manual is being fuelled by the era of electric vehicles, which all have automatic gearboxes.

Legislation dictates that 80 per cent of new cars sold in the UK by 2030 are electric, rising to 100 per cent by 2035.

The comprehensive study by online marketplace CarGurus reviewed the UK’s 30 most popular car brands.

It found that new manuals on sale fell from 194 in 2018 to 89 this year – a drop of 54 per cent.

Jeep, Land Rover, Mini and Honda offer only one manual option in their ranges.

Volkswagen offers the most with 10, followed by Ford and Hyundai, each with six.

Data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders shows that over three quarters – 76 per cent – of new car sales were manuals in 2011.

By last year, that figure had fallen to fewer than three in 10 vehicles – 28.7 per cent.

Manuals to have ceased production include the UK’s all-time best-selling car, the Ford Fiesta, which left the assembly line for the last time in July 2023.

Learner drivers opt for automatic

Learner drivers are also opting for automatics during their driving tests in greater numbers than ever before, accelerating the demise of the manual gearbox.

There were a record 324,064 automatic-only tests taken last year, according to official Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency figures.

That was an increase of a third since 2022 and 269 per cent more than the 87,844 automatic-only tests taken a decade earlier.

They accounted for 37 per cent of the 865,000 driver qualification checks carried out last year.

Second-hand buyers can save by opting for a manual car.

A 2020 automatic Volkswagen Polo is £18,285 (compared to £15,736, a saving of 14 per cent); a Nissan Qashqai is £20,223 (£18,006, 11 per cent); and a Ford Fiesta is £17,189 (£15,730, eight per cent).

Chris Knapman, editor at CarGurus UK, said: “Between the increasing consumer demand for cars with an automatic gearbox and the rapid expansion of new EV models coming to market, we could be approaching the end of the road for the manual gearbox.”