There are some mild hybrids with manual transmissions in Europe. Full blown / PHEVS ? Idk.
I think from a tuning / efficiency / smoothness perspective a manual transmission adds a bit of a wildcard: human factor / clutch. It's probably a lot easier / more predictable and more relevant R&D to go down the auto path. In this day and age, this also means you'd get faster shifts and you don't have to balance the shift feel, durability and power capacity of a clutch. We now have an entire generation who "grew up" with "f1 like paddles" That's a lot to like for the product planners.
It's oddly appealing but it's also a weird proposition. It's very much a compromise between old school and new school. It's like having one foot in the past, one foot into the future. It wouldn't provide the "old school analog" feel that purists / old timers crave while also being incredibly complex as opposed to a full EV.
We're in a world of souped up SUVs, so I guess people are willing to embrace compromises?
At which point would you rather kick the ICE engine, gearbox, fuel tank, and all exhaust / compliance devices to the curb, throw one electric motor at each corners and a metric shit ton of battery cells.
