Editing Automatic transmission (section)

==Prevalence==
Vehicles with internal combustion engines, unlike electric vehicles, require the engine to operate in a narrow range of rates of rotation, requiring a gearbox, operated manually or automatically, to drive the wheels over a wide range of speeds.

Globally, 43% of new cars produced in 2015 were manual transmissions, falling to 37% by 2020.<ref name="Statista"/> Automatic transmissions have long been prevalent in the United States, but only started to become common in Europe much later. In Europe in 1997, only 10–12% of cars had automatic transmissions.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://gearsmagazine.com/magazine/automatic-trends-in-europe-automatic-transmissions-on-the-rise/ |title=Gears Magazine - Automatic Trends in Europe: Automatic Transmissions on the Rise}}</ref>

In 1957 over 80% of new cars in the United States had automatic transmissions.<ref name="Statista">{{cite web |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/204123/transmission-type-market-share-in-automobile-production-worldwide/ |title=Transmission type market share worldwide 2025}}</ref> Automatic transmissions have been standard in large cars since at least 1974.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scaruffi.com/politics/cars.html |title=Timeline of the Automobile Industry}}</ref> By 2020 only 2.4% of new cars had manual transmissions.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Stick Shift Index: Do People Still Drive Stick Shift Cars in America? |url=https://www.carmax.com/articles/stick-shift-index |website=Carmax |access-date=4 April 2023}}</ref> Historically, automatic transmissions were less efficient, but lower fuel prices in the US made this less of a problem than in Europe.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://garagedreams.net/car-facts/why-are-automatic-cars-so-popular-in-the-united-states |title=Why Are Automatic Cars So Popular in the United States? |date=4 November 2022}}</ref>

In the United Kingdom, a majority of new cars have had automatic transmissions since 2020. Several manufacturers including Mercedes and Volvo no longer sell cars with manual transmissions. The growing prevalence of automatic transmissions is attributed to the increasing number of electric and hybrid cars, and the ease of integrating it with safety systems such as [[Collision avoidance system|Autonomous Emergency Braking]].<ref>{{cite news| last=Griffiths |first=Hugo |title=Automatics for the people: less than a third of new cars can be ordered with a manual gearbox [in the UK]| publisher=carwow| date=19 October 2022 |url=https://www.carwow.co.uk/news/6414/automatic-gearboxes-become-the-norm}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Grose |first1=Thomas K. |title=U.K. Motorists Shift Gears to Automatic Vehicles |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2021-06-09/british-motorists-move-away-from-manual-transmission-vehicles |access-date=4 April 2023 |work=U.S. News & World Report |date=9 June 2021}}</ref>