BMW M is preparing an offensive that should make your pulse race and your bank manager weep. We’re talking about a massive arsenal of 30 new high-performance models over the next three years. A frantic parade of world premieres, facelifts, and M Performance variants that joins the 40 models already clogging up the Bavarian pipeline. It sounds like a dream for the “Ultimate Driving Machine” fan club, right? Well, wipe that smile off your face.
Tucked away between the lines of corporate enthusiasm is a confession that sounds like a death knell for purists: the manual transmission is officially on life support, and BMW just turned off the oxygen.
Frank van Meel, the CEO of the M Division, didn’t exactly use a silencer for this one. He basically told the world that the manual gearbox “doesn’t make much sense” anymore because it bottlenecks torque and ruins fuel consumption figures. But they’ve kept it “until now”: it’s the gentle caress on the cheek right before the trapdoor opens.
The bottom line? Suppliers don’t want to waste a dime developing new shifters for a shrinking niche of enthusiasts when they can shovel that money into the bottomless pit of electrification.
Among these 30 newcomers, the electric shadow is growing. We’ve already seen the iX3 M lurking in the Swedish snow, and an i3 M is on the horizon. For those who worship at the altar of the straight-six M3, an electric M car sounds like a vegan steakhouse, but in countries like France a silent M car starts to look like a tax haven on wheels.
To keep the old guard from storming the gates of Munich, van Meel promises that the six and eight-cylinder engines will survive. At least for those living in places where charging an EV is an epic quest. You’ll be shifting with paddles or letting a computer do the work. Ironically, it’s technically possible to put a manual in an EV, but BMW has zero interest in such “absurdities”. The passion is being optimized out of existence, and this time, the verdict is final.
