Magneti Marelli and Shanghai Automobile Gear Works (SAGW) have inaugurated their new joint venture plant in the industrial automotive district of Jiading, just outside Shanghai.

The joint venture, called SMMP (SAIC Magneti Marelli Powertrain) will produce hydraulic components for Magneti’s Freechoice automated manual for the Chinese market.

It will supply components for approximately 300,000 Freechoice tranmissions a year and will employ about 450 workers when operating at full capacity. It will also have its own research and development centre.

Freechoice is an electro-hydraulic automation mechanism of the manual transmission managed by an electronic control system to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. It is cheaper to produce that many other types of automatic transmissions.

The technology has already been adopted by 16 international carmakers, six of them Chinese.

In China, automatic transmissions, including CVT, dual-clutch and AMT are already popular and the market is expected to grow to a share of about 33% by 2015 according to Global Insight.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

Demand in the B segment is projected to reach 250,000 units and about 46,000 in the C segment.