The manual gearbox continues its descent into obscurity with the 2020 Corvette. According to its chief engineer, the new mid-engine Stingray will never have a manual transmission.
Manual transmissions are on their way out. According to Toyota, only a tiny fraction of their vehicles are sold with a manual transmission. And by tiny, we mean somewhere in the single digits of percentages. Things only get into the double digits with the Toyota 86, where about one-third of customers opt for a manual, but that's still not very many people.
Volkswagen reports slightly higher, but similarly depressing numbers.
So perhaps it comes as no surprise that the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette, the first mid-engined Corvette in history, will also be the first to not offer a manual transmission.
According to Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter (who spoke to Motor Authority at the 2020 Corvette reveal event), the manual transmission will not be available on the new Stingray for the simple reason that nobody was willing to make one.
“We couldn’t find anybody honestly who’d be willing to do it. Because just like the automatic, the DCT, it would have to be a bespoke manual,” Juechter said. “It’s low volume, very expensive. The reason is it’s a low-volume industry. That industry is dying—building manual transmissions.”
Juechter also revealed some startling figures about the last generation Corvette's manual sales. “It’s 15 percent on cars like the Z06, which historically have been only a manual. And as soon as we offer the automatic, everybody buys the automatic,” he said.
The new 2020 Stingray comes equipped with a brand new 8-speed dual-clutch transmission made in collaboration with Tremec. Its design was actually considered during the Corvette’s development as the new mid-engine configuration places tough space restrictions on how big a transmission can be.
Simply put, a manual transmission wouldn’t fit in place of the new DCT, according to Juechter, so not only was there cost considerations keeping people from developing a stick-shift for the Stingray but also technical limitations too.
It’d be a shame, but as Juechter pointed out, 85% of Corvette buyers won’t really miss the manual anyway.