In the “old days,” you had two transmission options if you wanted to buy a car. More often than not, a manual transmission was the standard choice, but buyers increasingly had automatic transmission options. Then, ‘ze Germans started using dual-clutch transmissions in racing cars, leading to the array of the gearboxes seen on the market today. That’s about to change for BMW, at least, as the company’s M division head of development told Top Gear that the DCT would die as it shifted to electrification.
DCTs are great alternatives to slushbox automatics, but electric vehicles don’t need traditional transmission setups. BMW plans to cut DCTs in favor of torque converter automatics and manual transmissions, and the company has no desire to slap a manual in its EVs. The current M2 will likely be the last BMW available with the DCT, and after that, it’ll be standard automatic transmissions for all.
Progress is progress, but it’s hard not to be wistful about BMW dropping the DCT. It’s become a familiar part of the performance formula for so many vehicles, shifting faster than any human could ever hope to. At the same time, modern automatic transmissions are nearly as good, so some buyers may not even be able to tell the difference.
[Image: BMW]
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from TheTruthAboutCars https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/news-blog/pour-one-out-for-bmw-s-dual-clutch-transmissions-44501395?utm_medium=auto&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=all_full
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