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BMW M2 Manual Take Rate Hits 50 Percent in the US
BMW M CEO Frank van Meel says half of all M2 buyers in the US choose the manual transmission, a figure that drove the decision to build the limited-run M3 CS Handschalter for North America.
By Edward Beaumont · 3 min read
Every second BMW M2 sold in the United States comes with a manual transmission, according to M CEO Frank van Meel. He used the figure to explain a separate decision: why BMW built the M3 CS Handschalter, a limited-run manual-only special edition that sold out almost as soon as it went on sale.
A 50 percent take rate on a manual gearbox would be a remarkable number for any car in 2026. The M2 is a sports coupe that could have shipped without a clutch pedal at all, given how the rest of the segment has gone. Van Meel did not frame it as a surprise, though. He used it as evidence for a broader point about US demand, then pointed straight at the payoff: «Rear-wheel drive and a manual transmission are the dream combination for many purists. That is why we also made a limited model with a manual transmission for the U.S. Demand was enormous; the car was practically sold out immediately.»
That limited model is not a special M2. It is the M3 CS Handschalter, a rear-wheel-drive-only, manual-only version of the outgoing M3 built specifically for North America. Van Meel is drawing a straight line between the two cars: the M2’s take rate is the data point, the CS Handschalter is what BMW did about it.
The M3 CS Handschalter starts at $108,450 and undercuts the automatic, xDrive-based M3 CS by roughly $11,000. It is rear-wheel drive only, manual only, built specifically for North America, and BMW has not said how many it is making. Estimates suggest around 600-700 units. It also arrives as the current G80 M3’s likely send-off: the model is expected to wind down around February 2027, and its replacement is widely reported to drop the manual entirely in favour of xDrive-only, automatic-only power.
If that holds, the CS Handschalter is not just a limited edition riding on the M2’s popularity. It is the last manual M3 BMW will ever build. The Z4 M40i used to round out BMW’s manual lineup, but that ended in the spring, when the G29 went out of production with a Final Edition and no confirmed successor. That leaves the M2, base M3, and base M4 as the only manual BMWs sold in the US today, and with the M3’s replacement reportedly going automatic-only, the M2 may end up the one holdout still standing once the CS Handschalter’s run is over.
Whether the M2’s take rate translates into a manual staying on the order sheet for the next M3, or the next M2, is a separate question van Meel did not answer directly. But the number he did give is hard to argue with, and it puts the CS Handschalter in context alongside the rest of BMW’s shrinking manual lineup.
