Added: 31 August 2021
In a move that echos premium car brands, such as Jaguar, Land Rover and Mercedes (passenger cars) who have already phased out manual transmissions, VW look to be following suit by phasing them out by 2030. The next generation Passat and Tiguan will already by moving to automatic only transmissions with the rest of the lines to follow.
Although the 'shift' to EV, or electric vehicles, will eventually mean the end for manual gearboxes anyway, it appears VW will eliminate manuals before it completely abandons internal combustion. This reason for this, Auto Motor und Sport says, is to save on development costs. This will likely come hand in hand with a reduction in the number of internal combustion options available as Volkswagen wants to stop selling ICE models in Europe by 2035 anyway.