With the development of electromobility, manual transmissions are slowly becoming a thing of the past, and only a few manufacturers offer them as an option. After recently announcing that it was discontinuing the N line (models with internal combustion engines) in favor of electric versions, Hyundai has announced that it will stop producing the manual gearbox at its factory in Nošovice, Czech Republic.
Reduced demand for Hyundai models with manual transmission was the reason for the Korean manufacturer to make this decision. As a reminder, in 2008, the share of cars with manual transmission in production reached 90 percent, while in 2023 it dropped to 24 percent. Hyundai produced more than 186,000 manual transmissions in Nošovice last year (15 percent less than in 2022). This does not mean that their use will stop completely, because Hyundai will deliver them to Europe from Asia. On the other hand, there is a growing interest in models without CO2 emissions, and this is another factor that makes the automatic transmission indispensable in sales.
The factory in Nošovice is one of the most successful foreign investments in Czech industry. In this plant, Hyundai produces the Hyundai i30, Tucson and Kona Electric models. Last year, 340,500 new cars left this factory, showing how important it is to Hyundai. About 72 percent of that figure was the Tucson model, while the i30 and Kona Electric made up 13 percent of production each, and the i30 N hot-hatch made up the remaining two percent.
Source: Hyundai
