BMW M’s Boss Just Explained Why Building New Manual M Cars Is Harder Than Just Adding A Clutch Pedal
BMW M CEO Frank van Meel just gave manual-transmission fans the most detailed answer yet on why the next M3 and M4 probably won’t offer a stick shift, and it isn’t because nobody wants one. Speaking with BMW Blog during the M Festival in Shanghai, van Meel pointed to a stack of engineering problems that have nothing to do with demand: 48-volt mild-hybrid systems that don’t play nice with a clutch pedal, an engine making more torque than the current gearbox can handle, a shrinking pool of suppliers who can even build a new manual, and a traction ceiling that’s already pushed the M5 to all-wheel drive only.
The demand half of the equation isn’t in question. Half of all G87 M2s sold in the US come with the six-speed manual, and the limited-run M3 CS Handschalter sold out in about a week at just over $107,000 before destination. Van Meel acknowledged as much directly: “We do acknowledge that there is a high demand, and it’s a very emotional issue.” But acknowledging the emotion doesn’t fix the engineering, and his comments make clear the road to another manual M3 is a long one.
Why Van Meel Says Manuals Are Getting Harder, Not Easier
Van Meel didn’t dress up the answer. “I don’t want to explain why it’s difficult, because every engineer always explains why things are difficult,” he said, before adding the blunt version anyway: “It’s going to be really difficult.”
The biggest new obstacle is 48-volt mild-hybrid technology, which BMW is leaning on partly because it helps emissions numbers during testing. Those systems use a belt-driven starter-generator instead of a traditional starter and alternator, and integrating that hardware, plus its control software, into a car still built around a clutch pedal isn’t a simple bolt-on job. Asked directly if the manual was off the table for good, van Meel said, “No, it is not off the table,” but followed that with the far more honest line: “I cannot promise anything.”
The Torque And Supplier Problem Nobody Can Engineer Around
The mechanical issue predates the hybrid question. BMW’s current six-speed manual can’t handle the full output of the S58 twin-turbo inline-six in its strongest tunes. The manual M3 is capped at 406 lb-ft of torque, well short of the 479 lb-ft the automatic Competition and CS versions make, which is exactly why those higher-output cars are automatic-only already.
Fixing that would mean a new gearbox, and that’s where van Meel’s answer gets bleaker. There are almost no suppliers left in the world still building manual transmissions rated for this kind of torque, and BMW M has less leverage to commission a bespoke unit as global manual demand keeps shrinking outside a handful of enthusiast nameplates.
What This Means For M2 And M3 Shoppers Right Now
Power is the other wall. Van Meel pointed to the M5’s shift to xDrive-only once output approached 600 hp, framing it as a traction call rather than a marketing one: “Does it still make sense in a rear-wheel drive? Because you’re just burning rubber.” The M3 and M4 aren’t far behind that line, and the G82 M4 CSL already makes 550 hp.
For now, the window for a manual M car is the current lineup. The rear-drive M2, the base M4 Coupe, and whatever manual G80 M3s remain before that chassis winds down are the options on the table, with the M3 CS Handschalter likely standing as that generation’s last stick-shift car. Van Meel said the clutch pedal should stick around in the M2 for at least a couple more years, but he stopped short of promising anything past that.
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