Electric and hybrid cars are killing the manual gearbox - and we won't miss it

New statistics released by valuation expert cap hpi reveal that the automatic gearbox is making inroads on the dominance of the manual transmission in new cars sold in the UK. Last year, autos in all of their guises made up nearly 30 per cent of new-car sales, and in a decade automatics have seen a 118 per cent jump in numbers compared with manuals.

One reason behind this is obvious, with the increase in market share for direct-drive electric cars having an impact. Elsewhere, other than the Honda CR-Z, every hybrid and plug-in hybrid that’s been sold in the UK since the Toyota Prius first arrived at the start of the 21st Century has been an auto.

In the performance car market, virtually no hot hatches, sports or supercars come with manuals, reflecting the effect of motorsport, where sequential gearboxes packed with cutting-edge electronics are optimised to deliver seamless shifts.

Economies of scale are having an impact in the realm of everyday combustion engines, too. Car manufacturers faced with narrowing margins and constantly tightening emissions regulations have done the sums and seen that the cost of developing two transmissions doesn’t add up. And while autos are likely to be marginally more expensive to develop than manuals, more buyers are going to be able to purchase the former, so that’s the route that’s been taken. Look at the new-car prices in the back of the Auto Express magazine, and you’ll see a scarcity of manuals for sale, with less than a third of new models equipped with one.

But is the rise of the automatic such a bad thing? From what I see on the road, maybe not. Driving in the UK can be such a pain, from the terrible roads to the people that use them, and there are so many issues to deal with. So if you’re not having to worry about what gear you’re in, then you’re giving more time to what’s happening around you. I know people who have passed their test in a manual, but only ever drive autos for the convenience. Who needs to deal with a third pedal in stop-start traffic, for example?

Of course the enthusiast class will decry the death of the manual and its ‘connection’ to driving. But just like autos, there are good ones and bad ones, and the best will still be available on the used market and in demand for those that want them. For Joe Public, who sees a car as transport to get from A to B, the move to autos is just another step in the evolution from the horseless carriage.

There are plenty of other rituals that we no longer participate in: adjusting the choke, for example, hand signals, even looking behind when reversing, because parking sensors and cameras help us out. Using a clutch to change gears will eventually be another piece of ‘old tech’, reminisced about by those that think things were better ‘back in the day’.

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