Ford hopes to convert Europeans to automatics: New 6-speed launched
Regarding fuel economy, the double-clutch gearbox is surely a positive step. However, updating "regular" automatic transmissions and adding speeds is also good news. As our readers know, Europeans aren't much fans of automatics: fuel economy almost always resents the torque converter and most of the available trannies had too few speeds. Moreover, not until recent times have diesels been mated to automatics.
Ford Europe has updated its automatic transmissions for the two most powerful engines available in Europe, adding a 6-speed trannie named Durashift 6-tronic manufactured by Aisin AW. One engine is the gasoline Duratec 2.3 161 HP and the other one is the 2.0 TDCi 130 HP with Diesel Particullate Filter as standard. These two engines are installed in both the Mondeo sedan and the S-Max and Galaxy. No information about mpg improvements has been announced.
Ford announced in Franfurt that the 2.0 TDCi would also be available with a new Dual Clutch Transmission (like VW's DSG) for the Focus but this gives an additional choice once it's expanded to the vehicles that can use these two engines.
Both engines have manual 6-speed as standard.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 5:18PM (9/21/2007)
Ford Europe is simply following in VW AG's footsteps here. Other car makers are expected to follow soon because dual clutch trannies are not just as smooth as conventional ATs and more fuel efficient, they are also more responsive and cost less to produce to boot
Most of the first-gen designs feature wet clutches because they can handle high torque (>250Nm) without wear and tear. The oil pump does add weight and cost, though. In the long run, the bulk of the volume will be in dry dual clutch designs best suited for less powerful engines. Most of the magic is anyhow in the control software and, the unit price of that quickly tends to zero as unit volume goes up.
Moreover, Europeans car makers want to automate gear changes for the sake of meeting future mandatory fuel economy: their engine downsizing concepts are focussed on improving low-end torque to permit earlier shift points and longer gears. Engines can produce the required net power more efficiently at high torque, which implies lower engine speed and therefore reduced friction. The catch is that the tranny needs to kick down quite quickly whenever you want to accelerate hard. Six gears are no luxury if one of them is an overdrive and, it's much easier to implement that in a step-by-step design than with sets of planetary gears. There is also greater freedom wrt the choice of gear ratios.
Small wonder VW is now rolling out more Seat brand models with DSGs. The corporation has already announced it will not be releasing any new models with conventional ATs.
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mike 8:15PM (9/21/2007)
What is this futuristic advanced tech company called "Ford of Europe" you keep mentioning? Is this some science fiction story here at autobloggreen? The year is 2020 and Ford of Europe does something else fantastic...
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Don 12:39AM (9/22/2007)
Ah, Ford of Europe...a veritable Shangri-La where the manuals are 6-speeds, and the automatics the same.
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