Electric vehicles sold more than manual cars in the US in 2019

There is a good news for all the advocates of zero-emission mobility. For the first time in the American automobile industry, the sales number of manual transmission cars has been overtaken by that of electric vehicles.

Yes, you heard it right. The sales data for 2019 shows that manual transmission cars occupied just 1.1% of the total new car sales in the USA, while electric cars ranked 1.6%. This report has been put forward by Green Car Reports.

Presently manual gearboxes have a stronghold among base model commuter cars and the ones that enthusiasts follow. However, there have been big changes in the emission rules all around the world, including many European countries. This, along with the declining interest of the buyers, has contributed to low sales.

With the declining interest in manual cars, a lot of automakers have already taken a call on the inclusion of three-pedal transmission. However, many popular automakers are still persistent with a three-pedal system even on their premium cars. Volkswagen, for example, offers a 6-speed manual gearbox in the Golf GTI.

That said, manual cars are slowly being phased out from a lot of countries globally.

Presently, the manual transmission mechanism is offered mostly in hatchbacks and affordable commuters, especially in the base model. However, this is being used very strategically to draw prospective customers in the showroom and upsell them with a higher automatic variant. The manual hatchbacks no longer serve as the volume generators for their respective brands.

Modern electric vehicles, on the other hand, have managed to churn out a lot of enthusiasm among buyers. One-pedal driving and brakes regeneration encourage a lot of involvement from the drivers. And thus, there might be a time when the market share of automatic transmission cars and EVs might cross paths. Perhaps, that would be a fun data to analyze.

Also read: Nikola reveals new Badger electric truck; takes on Tesla Cybertruck