The manual transmission had a long automotive run and gear-heads were reluctant to see it fade out. Today, electric vehicles (EV) and full self-driving (FSD) cars meet resistance for similar reasons.
Just forty years ago, a third of new U.S. vehicles were equipped with stick shift, manual transmissions. Learners could not pass the driver’s exam until they could master the three pedal choreography. Drivers who favored the manual transmission said it gave them a “feel” and “oneness” with the vehicle. For everyone else, driving the hills of San Francisco was frightening.
Porsche Owners Speak Up:
I was reminded of how certain drivers cherish this aspect of driving when I attended this month’s local Porsche meetup. The meetup is just a few miles from my home, so I use the occasion to ask questions and talk about my upcoming book on electric vehicles.
What I learned at this month’s meetup was that drivers who value their “oneness” with the vehicle are also a group resistant to EV technology. They value the “feel” of driving, much as the earlier gear heads leaned into the performance from driving a stick-shift car. (Note: Porsche claims that about 40 percent of their petro sports cars are equipped with a manual transmission, but they are clutch-less. Only a few 2025-26 Porsche models have a traditional floor clutch).
On the other hand, all Porsche electric vehicles come with automatic transmissions. Moreover, the company just announced that they will stop making the gasoline version of Macan in 2026 and sales of this electric SUV have grown, at the expense of the Taycan, an all-EV sports car. So I asked the Porsche owners at the meetup if they would consider owning either vehicle The answer was a resounding ‘Not.’
Neither a Macan or a Taycan, in the words of the Porsche fan club, enhance the driving experience.
The Sensory Overload:
Features that made their petro cars exceptional are not available in the EV realm. EVs do not surround them with aspirating engines, the roar of mufflers and the smell of oil and gasoline. Owners seek the “sensory overload” of a sports car. Put simply, EV Macans and Taycans do not add to a good driving experience. In fact, it subtracts from them.
One angry owner, who did not seem to speak for his younger friends listening in, said that driving any electric car was “virtue signaling.” In his view electric Porsches carried the nameplate and big price tag but required more frequent maintenance trips back to the dealer.
The more prevalent view was that the Macan/Taycan offered nothing that a hobbyist could tinker with, so owners could not connect with the “heart” of the car. One owner voiced it this way: the electric vehicle is like using Amazon for shopping. It simplifies shopping but takes out the joy. For him, entering an electric vehicle is like entering a depressurization cell. Quiet and dull.
Commuter Cars (the EV):
That said, a surprising number of the Porsche owners did own an electric vehicle! They chose Teslas for their daily commute car. They had purchased the cars a few years back when buying a Tesla S or Model X was state-of-the-art. But no longer, since both vehicles are being discontinued. Many of these Tesla commuter cars had reached 100,000 miles, and the owners marveled that the vehicles were maintenance free, except for tires and cabin filter changes. That was a fine thing, but without service needs, their EVs were an interchangeable commodity, like the Amazon analogy, lacking sound, feel, and smell.
The latest Tesla Model Y and 3 models offer Full Self Driving (FSD) so I asked the drivers with these 100,000 miles vehicles how they felt about getting one. They reacted strongly, as if manual transmissions were being taken away and outlawed. It seemed that FSD further neutered and removed them from the driving experience.
The majority of the Porsche drivers wanted little to do with self-driving technology. They could not picture themselves behind the wheel they did not hold! It was a throwback to the period when cars transitioned from the manual transmission. Back then, some drivers did not want to give up the experience, while others could not wait for the technology to change.
Tabling: Next Generation
As I was about to leave I discovered a parent who was “tabling” with his son and other high-school students. They were starting a local after-school car-club and recruiting Porsche owners, perhaps to speak or donate tear-downs.
I was fairly sure that these high-school students had not learned how to drive on a manual transmission car. While brands like Porsche are fighting to keep the ‘soul’ of the stick shift alive for enthusiasts, the mainstream reality is shifting. To pass their driving tests, students still need to demonstrate they can back-up and parallel-park yet a modern EV can do that for them at the press of a button. I wondered if the next generation of drivers would continue to know how to parallel park, or whether exercising that need, like the manual gearbox, would be purely optional in a world of EVs, Full Self Driving (FSD) and electric automation.