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EVs are now outselling manual transmissions in the US
The manual transmission continues to have a pretty tough time here in America, with buyers avoiding manual-transmission cars in record numbers. Such record numbers that now EV sales have surpassed sales of vehicles with manual transmissions, according to data from J.D. Power and reported recently by Driving.ca.
Why is that important? Well, the venerable stick shift has been around since someone decided that cars needed more than one gear. While its previous popularity has been eclipsed by the automatic transmission for decades, the manual transmission has managed to hang on.
According to J.D. Power, manual transmissions have approximately 1.1% market penetration in America, which for many enthusiasts is a fairly grim figure to see. Comparatively, electric vehicles -- which have really only been commercially available to the public for the last decade or so -- now represent 1.9% of car sales in the US.
A big chunk of the reason for this likely lies in good old-fashioned availability. The manual transmission used to be the cheap transmission of choice. It was what you got when you were buying a small, affordable car and didn't want to shell out several thousand dollars for an automatic.
Now, most of those same small, affordable cars are only sold as automatics. The manual transmission was also traditionally the way you'd go if you wanted to buy a high-performance car because old automatics were often slow to shift and shifted at the wrong time. That's also changed, with many of the most high-performing models from companies offered with either paddle-shifted dual-clutch transmissions or performance-tuned automatics.
It was only a matter of time as fewer and fewer cars with manual transmissions are being manufactured at the same time as more and more electric vehicles are being built. Who here saw this coming so soon?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 10 2019, @02:15AM (3 children)
Good for ADHD kids to learn to drive on as well. Being forced to be more mentally engaged with their driving starting out trains their brains to hyperfocus on the task at hand even if they later switch to an automatic. It's been a few years since I read the study that came from but how much better drivers the ones who started on manual were was pretty astounding.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday November 10 2019, @03:59AM (2 children)
Yes, it is quite believable that starting on a manual makes a better driver. While I started on an automatic, my second vehicle and most after have been manuals. Only thing I like better about an automatic is stop and go rush hour driving.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 10 2019, @04:24AM (1 child)
Yeah, I really don't get anyone who's a Linux user driving an automatic. Well, maybe systemd fans.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @07:35AM
Fuck Systemd.
FUCK SYSTEMD.