In an usual move, SAIC has signed a deal with rival car maker Brilliance to research and create 500,000 transmission units per year, including 100,000 automatics.
Brilliance signed the deal with SAICs subsidiary company, Shanghai Automobile Gear Works Co Ltd. The two companies are also set to research DCG - Double Clutch Gearboxes together. The current automatic transmission market in China is dominated by international players, together, SAIC and Brilliance hope to change this.
I hope we can expect some better gearboxes. How about a 6 speed on a Chinese built car. I can safely say that the gearbox of every Chinese car I’ve driven has been terrible.
Mark, if the manual transmissions are terrible then we can’t expect too much of the electro-mechanical automatics at first. This technology is the most challenging for Chinese domestics. It’s gonna take awhile.