Automatic transmissions are the dominant trend in power transmission systems

February 10, 2020 10:21 am

The quality of clutches and gearboxes highly influences the efficiency of a power transmission system.

Ninad Deshpande, Head – Marketing & Corporate Communication, B&R Industrial Automation Pvt. Ltd. discusses the factors that have led to the rise of automatic power transmission systems and the efforts by Indian OEMs to improve performance and efficiencies in the sector.

What are the challenges faced in automating the power transmission systems market? What is the progress you noticed in automobile transmission in the last few years?
Manual transmissions have ruled the Indian market for years now. This was solely owing to the cost factor of automatic transmission and the lower fuel efficiencies. In India, primarily in the past, having a fuel-efficient vehicle had more weightage over having a vehicle with more comfort. However, with rising income, better lifestyles, focus on comfort over costs, increasing traffic, advancing transmission technologies, and more affordable costs, consumers have moved from manual transmission to automatic transmissions. Thus, the manufacturers too have understood this changing trend, and power transmission systems have moved from manual to automation such as the most commonly available AMT, CVT, and DSG, amongst others.

Hybrid vehicles have also been launched by many OEMs. However, the demands have not seen a considerable rise from consumers. Today, OEMs are gearing up for enabling them to move in the direction of electric vehicles and electric transmission. However, due to high initial costs, consumers are still not pursuing the electric dream. Similar to the previously experienced sudden movement from manual to automatic, in my opinion, the day is not far when consumers would move from fuel-propelled cars to electric ones.

How do you assess power transmission system readiness for electrical and hybrid cars among Indian manufacturers?
No doubt, Indian OEMs already have a solution in place for power transmission systems for hybrid and electric vehicles. However, automotive being a competitive and innovative yet cost-sensitive market, there are consistent efforts to improve performance and efficiencies as desired by Indian consumers. In my opinion, Indian manufacturers are already geared up for various power transmission systems based on the type of vehicle. There is always place for improvements and all manufacturers are continuously exploring and heavily investing on ways to reduce costs, improve performance and efficiencies and provide a better user experience.

How does the quality of clutches and gearboxes impact the efficiency of power transmission systems?
The quality of clutches and gearboxes highly influences the efficiency of a power transmission system. This is true for manual, automatic, hybrid as well as electric transmission systems. If we take an example of automatic transmission, it is the basic method of power transmission from the engine to the drive wheel. Here, the driver can experience the gearshifts prominently. However, the cost of such assemblies is lower and might have higher efficiencies and comfort than manual transmission vehicles. Moreover, continuous variable transmission has higher fuel economy and better user experience at gearshifts but is relatively expensive. A direct shift gearbox combines the advantages of manual shifts and automatic transmission with different clutches for odd and even gears, providing a greater user experience, with the cost driven higher up. In electric vehicles, usually the gear ratio is set for certain specific conditions such as highway or city driving. There could be points which provide an illusion of a CVT. Thus, when you consider any vehicle, the quality of gearboxes and clutches will provide a greater user experience but at the same time will have a rising effect on the costs. It is important to note that user experience and comfort come at a price.

Ninad Deshpande, Head- Marketing & Corporate Communication, B&R Industrial Automation Pvt.Ltd