Fuel Economy Emergency: Six-Speed Transmissions to the Rescue
Automakers scrambling for quick fixes to polish up vehicle economy numbers in the eyes of fuel-price-fatigued U.S. customers are reaping real results from their -- and the supplier community's -- investments in the new generation of six-speed automatic transmissions.
The powertrain sector's shift to six-speed automatics has been coming since as early as 2001, but $4-per-gallon gasoline and $5 diesel fuel has turned up the heat on vehicle engineers to deliver more or less immediate efficiency enhancements for existing vehicles.
The migration to six-speed automatics was initiated by large transmission suppliers and a few major ventures by automakers' own transmission-making operations when gasoline was still considered cheap. Now, the industry is geared up to crank out the more efficient six-speed automatics in volume -- and with the high-tech transmissions promising as much as a 6 or 7 percent boost in fuel economy, the timing couldn't be better.
Since the introduction of its first six-speed automatic for the BMW 7 Series in 2001, Germany's transmission mega-supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG has ramped up production exponentially to the point where it manufactured 1.3 million six-speed automatics last year -- and that number was a 30 percent jump from the 994,000 six-speed automatics ZF made just the year before.
Many European premium-car manufacturers -- not to mention volume producer Volkswagen AG -- were early adopters of the six-speed automatic, which has become common across their model ranges.
Meanwhile, data from Edmunds.com indicates a corresponding explosion of six-speed adoption in vehicles for the U.S. market. In 2001, there were just 15 models equipped with a six-speed automatic. For 2008, the number has increased by a factor of 12: there are 181 vehicles now offering the efficiency-enhancing six-speed.
ZF says its current-generation six-speed automatic increases fuel economy by 7 percent when compared to the four-speed automatic that for years was the industry standard -- and still is a staple in many vehicle segments. And the six-speed transmissions still deliver a significant 5 percent boost compared with five-speed automatics.
Maybe 7 percent doesn't sound like much. But a vehicle with a combined fuel economy rating of 25 mpg goes to 27 mpg. Or a city fuel economy figure of 17 mpg perhaps goes to 18 mpg. Small differences may be large when measured in consumer-perception terms. And with significant production volumes, these improvements mean a lot of fuel saved -- not to mention a genuine boost for automakers' CAFE calculations.
General Motors Corp., for example, made haste to make its new 6T40 six-speed automatic available with the 2.4-liter four-cylinder in its successful new Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedan; four-cylinder versions of the car launched only with four-speed automatic. The payoff from the move to the 6T40 for the '08 Malibu LTZ: a 2-mpg improvement in highway fuel economy, from 30 mpg to 32 mpg.
A spokesman for the company's Powertrain division says GM currently offers nine six-speed transmissions in 40 global vehicle models and by the close of 2009 plans to use the transmission in another 10 models, when it will be producing 3 million six-speed (manual and automatic) transmissions annually.
Fuel Economy Emergency: Six-Speed Transmissions to the Rescue - Auto Observer
The powertrain sector's shift to six-speed automatics has been coming since as early as 2001, but $4-per-gallon gasoline and $5 diesel fuel has turned up the heat on vehicle engineers to deliver more or less immediate efficiency enhancements for existing vehicles.
The migration to six-speed automatics was initiated by large transmission suppliers and a few major ventures by automakers' own transmission-making operations when gasoline was still considered cheap. Now, the industry is geared up to crank out the more efficient six-speed automatics in volume -- and with the high-tech transmissions promising as much as a 6 or 7 percent boost in fuel economy, the timing couldn't be better.
Since the introduction of its first six-speed automatic for the BMW 7 Series in 2001, Germany's transmission mega-supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG has ramped up production exponentially to the point where it manufactured 1.3 million six-speed automatics last year -- and that number was a 30 percent jump from the 994,000 six-speed automatics ZF made just the year before.
Many European premium-car manufacturers -- not to mention volume producer Volkswagen AG -- were early adopters of the six-speed automatic, which has become common across their model ranges.
Meanwhile, data from Edmunds.com indicates a corresponding explosion of six-speed adoption in vehicles for the U.S. market. In 2001, there were just 15 models equipped with a six-speed automatic. For 2008, the number has increased by a factor of 12: there are 181 vehicles now offering the efficiency-enhancing six-speed.
ZF says its current-generation six-speed automatic increases fuel economy by 7 percent when compared to the four-speed automatic that for years was the industry standard -- and still is a staple in many vehicle segments. And the six-speed transmissions still deliver a significant 5 percent boost compared with five-speed automatics.
Maybe 7 percent doesn't sound like much. But a vehicle with a combined fuel economy rating of 25 mpg goes to 27 mpg. Or a city fuel economy figure of 17 mpg perhaps goes to 18 mpg. Small differences may be large when measured in consumer-perception terms. And with significant production volumes, these improvements mean a lot of fuel saved -- not to mention a genuine boost for automakers' CAFE calculations.
General Motors Corp., for example, made haste to make its new 6T40 six-speed automatic available with the 2.4-liter four-cylinder in its successful new Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedan; four-cylinder versions of the car launched only with four-speed automatic. The payoff from the move to the 6T40 for the '08 Malibu LTZ: a 2-mpg improvement in highway fuel economy, from 30 mpg to 32 mpg.
A spokesman for the company's Powertrain division says GM currently offers nine six-speed transmissions in 40 global vehicle models and by the close of 2009 plans to use the transmission in another 10 models, when it will be producing 3 million six-speed (manual and automatic) transmissions annually.
Fuel Economy Emergency: Six-Speed Transmissions to the Rescue - Auto Observer
