By Tong Na
Wu Zhixin, a doctor from China Automotive Technology & Research Centre, said recently in the Forth GRC Seminar for Transmission Technology that with the high-speed increase of the auto market in China, the transmission output for passenger car market grew by 23 percent per year on average in the last five years; however, the Chinese auto market still remained immature with a high installation ratio of manual transmission and presently, the installation ratio of automatic transmission in cars newly produced was only about 35 percent.
"With the further development of the market, the installation ratio of automatic transmission will occupy over 50 percent of the whole passenger car market share to the end of 2015." Mr. Huang Fangqing, forecast director from IHS also viewed that the installation ratio of automatic transmission of the domestic auto joint ventures had reached 50 percent, but for the auto enterprisers with self-owned brands, the proportion was less than 20 percent. It implies a huge market space, but accordingly the technological upgrading seems more challenging.
It is well known that among the three key component and part technologies of auto industry in engine, transmission and chassis, the Chinese enterprises in components and parts fall behind in transmission and chassis technologies. In recent years, a lot of enterprises with self-owned brands focus on the strategy for transmission development years and develop quite a few manual transmissions through independent or joint research and development. Currently, these products are installed in a large scale in the major car types owned by the self-owned-brand enterprises and have already stepped into the stage of quality improvement.
However, in the automatic transmission area, the self-owned-brand enterprises lacking in technical reserve and accumulation feel hard to develop due to high investment risk and technological threshold. It is said that as for R&D of automatic transmission, the host manufacturers in China first rely on commission development, technological impartation and intellectual property transfer and then gradually absorb it and make it the own thing, which needs a certain period to be realized. However, the huge market space is emerging and it is a trial for the domestic auto manufacturers with self-owned brands to find a correct way for rapid development.
We see that FAW has planned to development several automatic transmission product platforms for self-owned-brand passenger car and SAIC also has a clear strategy for automatic transmission product. The domestic self-owned-brand enterprises including Chang’an, BYD and Geely, begin to develop and produce for trial various kinds of automatic transmission products, but recently nearly none of them are capable of producing advanced automatic transmissions which can be installed on a large scale.
An automatic transmission product needs to be checked up for its matching degree between shifting curve and power take-off theoretically through integration of transmission with engine and whole car; meanwhile, it also needs product verification test calibration through a series of practical tests to obtain a comprehensive evaluation in aspects like power performance, smoothness and stability.
GRC (GIF Research Center (China) Co., Ltd.), as the first company which introduced the technology of dual clutch transmission development and test in China, owns the research and development laboratory and experimental facility in its R&D center in Suzhou. "GIF, as an engineering company, is devoted to mass production of product, which is different from the business target of a design company. We are advantageous because we have complete evaluation methods and measures so as to make sure of product reliability." Fu Xiuqi, general manager of GRC said clearly to the reporter that "the design ability of automatic transmission for the domestic auto manufacturers has been improved greatly and in future, the core business of GRC in China will shift to test and our target is to make the automatic transmission technology rooted in China really."
It is said that GRC will invest €10 million to construct a test center in Wujiang, Jiangsu and gradually install 12 new test beds. To the end of the next year, there will be 15 test beds. Fu Xiuqi said, "We keep exploring on our own in the past and enjoy little reserve. In recent years, we are cooperating horizontally and seeking for cooperation with technological owners by means of joint venture so the step becomes quicker. However, it still needs 5 to 10 years for the Chinese automatic transmission to become influencing really."
It needs to note that in the GRC Seminar for Transmission Technology, present experts also discuss about how to develop transmission technology during the era of hybrid power and electric vehicle. Feng Dalun, executing director of GRC told to the reporter that GIF, the parent company of GRC, owned 120 test beds in the world, among which 8 are equipped with battery simulation and the cost of each test bed reached €200,000 to 300,000. The structure of the test bed for electric auto is quite complicated which includes power supply, vent and heat extraction devices, in addition to the protection for test engineers.
New-energy car is considered as the core strategy for the future development of the Chinese auto industry. Therefore, in the area of transmission technology for hybrid power and electric auto, the domestic complete-car and components & parts manufacturers should carry out technical reserve in advance so as to ensure that they will not lag behind at the next technological turning point.
