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Looking at dealer 2-series coupe used car inventory in the US, Canada and UK, the pattern is that there are very few manual cars available with the I-6 engines (more common with I-4 engines, especially in the UK where it approaches 50%).
US used 2-series coupes:
139 total
17 I-6 engine with AWD (12%)
10 I-6 engine with RWD and auto (7%)
1 I-6 engine with RWD and manual (1%)
Canada used 2-series coupes:
61 total
6 I-6 engine with AWD (10%)
1 I-6 engine with RWD and manual (2%)
UK used 2-series coupes (no AWD F22 ever sold there)
413 total
73 I-6 engine with RWD and auto (18%)
5 I-6 engine with RWD and manual (1%)
The chances of a manual M240i in a market where the G42 may sell less than the F22 due to a move to SUVs reducing car sales even more looks dismal, even if the proportion of 2-series sales is higher than the available 1% used inventory due to them selling quicker or being held on to by enthusiasts, but still a very low proportion as enthusiasts are already a small minority of buyers. Worldwide you are looking at just a few thousand cars a year which isn’t worth the variant certification in the markets where they would be sold.
I can also see a good argument that a consolidated and smaller market for a speciality model would also just be for the most popular variant. With the M240i already being a niche product, just the AWD auto version would make sense from a marketing and cost savings perspective.
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