As far as the majority of European drivers are concerned, the only transmission worth considering is the manual, which accounts for four out of every five gearboxes found in new cars sold in the region. There are two key factors in this dominance: (1) the extra cost in purchase price of automatic transmissions; (2) the in-built prejudice against automatics. The typical European driver still believes that not having a shift stick dilutes control of the car. "In Europe, if a customer can obtain an air conditioning system or light-alloy sports wheels for the same extra cost as an automatic transmission, the majority choose the other options," said Dr--Ing Gerhard Wagner, group vice president, ZF in his plenary speech at the Innovative Automotive Transmissions conference organized by the Car Training Institute in Berlin at the beginning of December 2005. "However, it should be noted that the extra cost charged for an automatic transmission is not in any way related to their manufacturing costs. Instead, the whole issue is governed by the pricing policy of the vehicle manufacturers which still determines that some items of equipment are cost options."
Wagner continued, "The figures quoted in sales brochures for fuel economy, emission levels and 0-100 km/h acceleration times are the next obstacle to overcome when selling a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission. If these figures are significantly worse than those of a vehicle with a manual transmission, European customers tend as a general rule to favor the manual transmission. As a consequence, the requirement for low fuel consumption and good performance figures form an essential component in any automatic transmission development work."
Things, though, could be about to change in Europe as the transmission has now come into the front line in the carmakers' quest to meet emissions legislation. "The primary requirements and customer benefits underpinning the further development of automatic transmissions," said Wagner, "include a reduction of fuel consumption, a reduction of pollution, vehicle performance improvement, increasing torque capacity, greater comfort, sportiness, noise reduction, resource conservation, and competitiveness."
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