Antonov has signed a production licence agreement with Zhejiang Geely Automobile Gearbox, the transmission manufacturing subsidiary of Geely Automotive.
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This follows an announcement last 27 November that Geely and Antonov had signed heads of agreement for the licence, which is for the production of the company’s TX6 six-speed automatic transmission.
Under the licence, Geely will have the non-exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture and sell transmissions covered by the Antonov six-speed automatic patents and will also receive design support from Antonov.
Antonov will receive licence fees totalling EUR900,000 payable over the next nine months and then a production royalty on each transmission produced.
Geely currently produces around 200,000 cars a year. Both companies will work on fitting the TX6 to an unspecified number of models with production commencing in 2008.
Geely has already put two models of conventional automatic transmission into production. The new transmission will also be available to other vehicle makers worldwide.
Antonov CEO John Moore said: “Geely has a strong track record in developing transmissions and their experience and established infrastructure will allow us to bring our technology to production rapidly. China is a key market for our technology and Geely provides an excellent customer reference site, which will underpin our commercialisation strategy in the region.”
