Getrag plans to increase volumes in high-growth Asian markets and reduce the cost of future transmissions by using a range of modular global platforms that are flexible enough to meet local requirements.
An important part of the strategy is the Asian engineering headquarters in China which is fully integrated into the company’s global engineering organisation. The facility cooperates closely with local OEMs and is increasing sourcing from the company’s Asian supply chain as well as using Getrag’s modular global transmission platforms.
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“Getrag’s transition to global transmission platforms will improve our time-to-market and development costs, while further building our economies of scale and competitiveness,” said business development chief Bernd Eckl.
“We are already the third largest transmission supplier in China including OEMs; by 2015 we will also be number two in China for dual clutch transmissions [Getrag’s DCTs are used in Ford’s Fiesta and Focus lines worldwide – ed]. Higher volumes in Asia will improve our global cost base and competitiveness.”
Growth in emerging markets is expected to drive global transmission volumes for light vehicles from around 80m to over 100m a year by 2018, Getrag forecast.
Due to “this significant growth potential and to the very investment intensive business”, Getrag continues to concentrate on transmission business,” the supplier said.
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By GlobalData“Demand increases will be strongest for manual and dual clutch transmissions, but the attributes drivers want differ significantly from market to market.”
“To meet this global challenge, Getrag established product platforms that are still flexible to address customer requirements and to deliver the right attributes for the best possible extent,” Eckl added.
“With its main transmission platforms and a modular kit of subsystems, Getrag will deliver the optimum balance between cost, weight, drivability, fuel efficiency, launch, acceleration and shift quality for each market.”
It has launched two new transmissions: the seven-speed dual clutch 7DCT300 and based on that, the Hybrid Drive 7HDT300. The transmissions complete the company’s product line to provide total coverage in terms of torque output and application size.
Getrag chief technology officer Didier Lexa said: “We have developed each module with enough flexibility and breathing space to make it easily adaptable to the different attributes required by different local markets. Benchmarking the 7DCT300 against CVTs and automatics has made the transmission best-in-class for launch, fuel economy, NVH, cost and ease of hybridisation.”
The 7DCT300 is designed for use in mid-sized and compact vehicles with front-transverse layouts and maximum torque of 300Nm. It is the first transmission of a modular family of front-wheel-drive automatics which will be extended to 500Nm at the high end with the seven-speed 7DCT500 and to 150Nm at the low end with the six-speed 6DCT150.
Getrag said the transmission’s low dry weight of approximately 65kg makes it compatible with future lightweight vehicle platforms. The gearshift actuation uses electromechanical shift-drum technology, making it possible to add start/stop functionality without hardware changes.
