At a time when domestic first-line car brands are shouting for their own power platforms, another industry pain point has not been solved, that is, the gearbox. In the face of the technical blockade of AT transmission giants such as Aisin and ZF, independent brands can only choose to avoid their sharp edges, first seek breakthroughs in areas with relatively low technical thresholds such as CVT and DCT, and then seek opportunities to break through monopolies after having certain technological precipitation.
Dongan Power
Dongan Power, full name Harbin Dongan Automotive Power Co., Ltd. (DAAE), which was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1998, mainly produces and sells gasoline engines, manual transmissions and automatic transmissions with a displacement of 1.3 liters to 2.0 liters, and is the only enterprise in China that has both automobile engine, manual transmission and automatic transmission manufacturing technology. At present, it is a holding company of Changan Automobile Group, providing changan automobile with spare parts such as engines or gearboxes. For example, in the early years, the 4AT gearbox equipped with the Changan Yidong and Changan Yidong XT came from here. But now it's basically hard to see.
Since 2011, Dongan Power has officially opened the research and development project of the 6AT gearbox, and it was not until six years later that it was successfully rolled off the production line, which is also the first 6AT gearbox with complete independent intellectual property rights in mainland China. This gearbox is used by some models such as Zotye T600, Dongfeng Fengxing Jingyi T5, Haima 8S, etc. Unfortunately, these models are relatively unpopular models, and only Haima 8S is still existing, and the rest of the models have been discontinued.
This 6AT gearbox unfortunately failed to enter the mainstream market and show its true level, but Dongan Power is still exploring on the road of technology research and development. The new 8AT transmission can carry 400 Nm of torque and has a wider range of speed ratios, so it is expected to perform satisfactorily on the production model.
Shandong Shengrui transmission
Compared with Dongan Power, the development history of Shandong Shengrui Transmission is also full of hardships and regrets. In 2007, the Shengrui horizontal 8AT gearbox project was officially launched, and in 2013, the Shengrui 8AT gearbox was officially put into production, becoming the first domestic mass-produced independent 8AT gearbox. And soon ushered in the favor of land wind X5 and other models, Lifan, Yinxiang, Zotye and other 8 car companies, a total of 18 models for cooperation, but the latter of these car companies and models, are deteriorating. However, Pfizer Transmission has not given up on continuing to develop the 8AT gearbox, continuing to improve the product, and now it is the third generation of products, but the matching models are getting fewer and fewer, and the Pentium T99 is one of the more well-known ones.
Thankfully, Sinotruk and Weichai Power jointly took ownership of the company and launched research on commercial AT transmissions, and at present, various forms of 8AT transmissions have been introduced. Perhaps, commercial 8AT can become the key to Shengrui Transmission to achieve cornering overtaking. In addition, Sinotruk has also begun to lay out the passenger car market, so the subsequent transition to the passenger field will become smoother.
Hives are easy to create
Honeycomb Yichuang is a special powertrain research and development enterprise of Great Wall Motors, with pure fuel, hybrid, pure electricity and other powertrain independent research and development strength, Great Wall pickup truck, Haval, tank, Wei brand, Euler five major brands of powertrain are from this enterprise. The tank 500 listed last month, equipped with a 3.0T and longitudinal 9AT gearbox, confirms the company's research and development strength.
Judging from the results of various test drive tests in the early stage, the performance of this power system is basically satisfactory, the power parameters and fuel consumption performance are commendable, and there is only some room for improvement in terms of smoothness. After all, it is the first 9AT gearbox independently developed, and it can have such a performance, which is enough to enhance the confidence of domestic counterparts and accelerate the pace of overcoming technical problems, and it is expected that this powertrain can withstand the test of the market and time.
Some people may have doubts, now that new energy vehicles are engaged, why spend so much money to develop transmissions? Because AT transmission technology is a hurdle on the road to the high-end of independent automobile enterprises, if you can't step through this hurdle, you can only be led by the industry giants, and there are not many such examples in the history of the development of autonomous vehicles. It is expected that the above-mentioned enterprises will be able to break through the monopoly of the industry as soon as possible and help the development of independent automobile brands. (Text/UVIS Auto Ride)
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