By Shinoo Mapleton · May 26, 2026

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I’ve had a front-row seat to the biggest powertrain changes of the last 40 years. Carburetors gave way to fuel injection, naturally aspirated engines gave ground to turbos, automatics became faster than manuals, and now the industry is trying to decide whether the future is electric, hybrid, or something more complicated.

The latest answer appears to be hybrid. But for driving enthusiasts, there is one problem with that answer.

Nobody seems to be building a true hybrid manual sports car.

There have been exceptions in history, most notably Honda’s Insight, Civic Hybrid, and CR-Z, and mild hybrids with manuals have existed. But in the modern performance-car world, once a car becomes a serious hybrid, the manual transmission usually disappears. The reason is fairly simple. Hybrid systems want integration. They need to coordinate engine torque, electric motor torque, regenerative braking, battery management, and gear selection. A manual gearbox introduces the very thing engineers are trying to remove from that equation: human variability.

That is the uncomfortable tradeoff. Hybrid powertrains can make cars faster, cleaner, and more flexible, but they also tend to move the driver one step farther away from the mechanical process.

Lotus may be the next clear example.

Recent reports say the Emira will switch to a new Horse Powertrain hybrid V6 in 2027 or 2028, replacing both the Toyota-sourced supercharged V6 and the AMG four-cylinder. The reported setup uses a turbocharged 3.0-liter V6, an electric motor, and an automatic transmission, which makes the likelihood of a manual effectively zero.

That matters because Lotus buyers have already told the company what they want. The current Emira V6 is still offered with what Lotus calls the “coveted 6-speed manual gearbox,” and North American demand has been heavily skewed toward V6 manuals. Some public dealer and enthusiast references cite 83 to 88 percent of North American Emira orders as V6 manuals, so even if the exact number varies, the direction is obvious.

Americans may want V6s, but many Lotus buyers wanted the V6 because it came with a manual.

That distinction matters.

The Horse Powertrain story makes this even more interesting. Horse is a Renault, Geely, and Saudi Aramco backed powertrain venture focused on advanced combustion and hybrid systems. Reuters reported that Renault and Geely each own 45 percent, Aramco owns 10 percent, and Horse is built from former engine operations tied to Geely, Renault, and Volvo.

For Lotus, owned by Geely, that gives access to a modern engine pipeline at exactly the moment the EV-only future is becoming less certain. Reports also suggest the Type 135, effectively the future Esprit, has shifted away from pure EV toward a hybrid V8 supercar concept.

From a business standpoint, this makes sense. From an enthusiast standpoint, it is more complicated.

Hybrid systems may save combustion, but they probably will not save the manual. That means the current Emira V6 manual may become more important than Lotus originally intended. It could represent the final version of a very specific formula: mid-engine, hydraulic-feeling, combustion-powered, and manually shifted.

In other words, the very thing the future is moving away from.

I understand why Lotus is doing this. Regulations are tightening, customers still want range and sound, and a hybrid V6 or V8 may be the only realistic path for a small performance brand trying to survive. But if the new hybrid era brings more power while removing the clutch pedal, then we should be honest about what is being gained and what is being lost.

The future may be hybrid. But the manual’s future still looks like it depends on ICE.

— Shinoo Mapleton

InoKinetic Group, Inc. | Temecula, CA | inokinetic.com | drakancars.com

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