Where is the road of automatic transmission in China

In 2013, the demand for automatic transmissions in China reached 7 million units, but the proportion of domestic brands was less than 1%. This means that China needs to spend $8 billion annually on importing automatic transmissions.

Recently, at the Shengrui 8-speed automatic transmission (8AT) technology achievement appraisal meeting organized by the China Society of Automotive Engineers and Weifang Science and Technology Bureau, Xu Xiangyang, Executive Deputy Director of the National Passenger Vehicle Automatic Transmission Engineering Technology Research Center and Vice Dean of the School of Transportation Science and Engineering at Beihang University, revealed the above news.

"The development of China's auto automatic transmission market has been growing at an average annual rate of more than 30% in recent years, and the production and import of automatic transmissions by foreign joint ventures have been the absolute mainstream of the market for a long time." Guo Konghui, an academician of the CAE Member, told the Science and Technology Daily that, judging from people's driving habits, at present, novice drivers, especially female drivers, mostly prefer automatic transmission models.

However, China's autonomous automatic transmission has not yet been fully industrialized and still faces several key issues.

——The origin of the news——

What does less than 1% market share indicate

Whenever people talk about the performance of a car, they always start with the engine. Indeed, the performance of the engine directly affects the power of the car. However, a good engine also needs to be paired with a good gearbox, a gearbox that matches the entire vehicle.

In the face of the rapidly growing demand in the automatic transmission market, China's independently developed automatic transmissions account for less than 1% of the market share, and some imported independent AT products have not yet achieved mature industrialization.

Behind the data lies a deep-seated problem. The reliability and durability of China's independently developed automatic transmission products still need to be verified, whether they can match the entire vehicle; whether the quality consistency of mass-produced products can be guaranteed, and whether market development and after-sales service need to be quickly responded to. Guo Konghui said that automatic transmission is a key technology in automotive parts technology, second only to the engine, with high process requirements, difficult manufacturing, complex structure, and lack of independent intellectual property rights, often subject to foreign patent restrictions.

The lack of automatic transmission technology has undoubtedly become one of the biggest weaknesses for vehicle manufacturers. In the Chinese automotive industry dominated by the joint venture model, the growth of automotive components is difficult. "In Guo Konghui's view, although local components are cheap, their quality is not high. Not only do joint venture OEMs not adopt them, but local OEMs also abandon local components in pursuit of quality. As a result, they have fallen into a vicious cycle of weak development capabilities, low quality, weak market competitiveness, weak profitability, low development investment, and weak development capabilities.

According to relevant data, from 2014 to 2015, it is expected that the total number of passenger cars in China equipped with automatic transmissions will exceed half, surpassing manual transmission models, with a total of 9 million units.

It is worth noting that the recent changes in domestic automatic transmission manufacturers indicate that China's automatic transmission industry has entered a period of transformation and development. After 7 years of persistent adherence, Shengrui Transmission's independently developed 8AT has been launched on the Landwind X5, sounding the call for the development of automatic transmissions from 8AT to 13AT

The expert committee led by Academician Guo Konghui believes that the technological achievements of Shengrui 8AT have reached the design technical indicators, and the project's technical level and product performance indicators have reached the international advanced level, and can be transferred to the mass production stage. This means that China's domestic independent brand vehicles have the conditions to match international cutting-edge automatic transmissions, maintain the technical safety of China's automatic transmission industry, and drive the rapid growth of the domestic automatic transmission industry chain.

——Core Focus——

Is it better to have more automatic transmission gears

Automatic Transmission (AT) is a type of car transmission that can automatically change the gear ratio during vehicle operation, eliminating the need for manual gear shifting by the driver. Since the 1950s, the vast majority of cars sold in the United States have been equipped with automatic transmissions.

The four common types of automatic transmissions for automobiles are: hydraulic automatic transmission (AT), mechanical continuously variable transmission (CVT), electronically controlled mechanical automatic transmission (AMT), and dual clutch automatic transmission (DCT). At present, cars commonly use AT, which has almost become synonymous with automatic transmissions.

From 4AT to 6AT, then to 7AT and 8AT. In this era of frequent 8-speed automatic transmission, can we judge the quality of a car directly by the number of gears? Experts believe that the most important thing is whether it matches the vehicle or not. With more gears, the difference in transmission ratio between adjacent gears (the ratio of input and output shaft speeds of the gearbox in the corresponding gear) becomes smaller, making gear shifting easier and smoother, which is commonly referred to as good smoothness.

The more gears there are, the smoother the vehicle's shifting will be, and it can achieve near optimal power conditions, with obvious fuel saving effects. High gear positions can fully utilize the engine's power, and when running at speeds near the lowest fuel consumption, it can also achieve good fuel economy. Guo Konghui said that long-term high-speed and low-speed driving directly affects the vehicle's fuel consumption and ride comfort. But the more gears there are, the more frequent the shifting will be, and the power will temporarily stop when shifting, even if the shifting time is shorter.

It's like walking up stairs. To achieve the same floor height, the more levels there are, the lower the height of each step, and each step will be more effortless; On the contrary, it will be more laborious.

When test driving the Landwind X5 equipped with 8AT, I felt that the shifting was smooth and there was no noise. If the performance and quality can be maintained stably and persistently during mass production, the market prospects of 8AT will be very optimistic, "said Guo Konghui, director of the 8AT Technology Achievement Appraisal Expert Committee.

Liu Xiangwu, Chairman of Shengrui Transmission Co., Ltd., revealed that while promoting the matching of 8AT with multiple vehicle models, Shengrui has also launched internationally leading research and development of 13AT and 8AT with start stop function. In the future, it will also study and reserve international cutting-edge automatic transmission technologies such as hybrid power and pure electric 8AT.

——Expert opinions——

Collaborative innovation is the key to breaking through the encirclement

From the perspective of assembly, the most lacking aspect of China's automotive industry today is automatic transmission technology. Fu Yuwu, Chairman of the China Society of Automotive Engineers, has repeatedly mentioned this viewpoint.

China's automobile production and sales have reached over 20 million units. To leap from the world's largest "country" to a "strong nation", the key is to acquire the core technology of key components. Although domestic suppliers are growing rapidly, the lack of core technology in their products, coupled with inherent deficiencies in basic industries such as materials and processing, hinders the development of local component companies.

The biggest problem in China at present is not the development of original equipment manufacturers themselves, but the lack of synchronous development and manufacturing capabilities of automotive parts companies. Guo Konghui frankly stated that Japan's development model is worth learning from. Famous transmission suppliers such as Aisin and Gatco have inseparable equity relationships and common development backgrounds with vehicle companies such as Toyota and Nissan.

Compared to others, most of the newly emerging enterprises in China are private enterprises, which have the advantage of flexible systems. However, they lack both technology and funding, resulting in slow mass production and difficult progress. Several experts have stated that the development model of Shengrui 8AT will become a model for the growth of high-tech complex components, with market orientation, enterprises as the main body, international industry university research and application strategic cooperation, and the integration of global capital for our own use.

Guo Konghui suggested that it is necessary to strengthen the foundation and innovative research of new technologies, break the invisible soft technology lock through basic research, and break down tangible patent barriers through structural and material innovation. At the same time, vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers need to collaborate and form a community of shared interests. Vehicle manufacturers can assist component suppliers in optimizing their quality control systems, enhancing their R&D capabilities through joint development of new vehicle models, and integrating component suppliers into the global supply network through strategic partnerships

Professor Song Jian, Executive Vice Dean of the Automotive Engineering Research Institute at Tsinghua University, believes that in terms of stability and reliability, domestically produced automatic transmissions can be comparable to those abroad. The next step of development should focus on user feedback, and component suppliers should also keep up with the rapid development of the market.

We should seize the opportunity of the development of new energy and develop two to three speed electric vehicles as soon as possible, "said Song Jian. Electric vehicles using two speed automatic transmissions will increase energy efficiency by 10% to 15% and reduce costs by about 20000 yuan.

In Guo Konghui's view, taking advantage of the development of new energy vehicles is a good opportunity to promote the industrialization of automatic transmissions. Local governments are focusing on new energy vehicles, and the investment in hybrid buses is relatively small, making it relatively easy to launch. According to the development needs of low-speed electric vehicles, we are cooperating with relevant enterprises to develop a two speed electronic control mechanical automatic transmission suitable for small electric vehicles. "(Reporter Liu Yin)