According to a report on Autocar India, Nissan will soon offer the AMT (automated manual transmission) technology on its cars like the Micra and Sunny. The Japanese carmaker currently offers a CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) unit on these cars which is expensive compared to the AMT offered by Maruti on the Celerio.
The X-Tronic CVT as Nissan calls it, is developed and produced by JATCO, a subsidiary of Nissan. The X-Tronic does claim to offer better fuel efficiency compared to the manual variant, however, it hasn't received the expected response in India. Moreover CVT variants of the Micra and Sunny are priced at a premium of INR 1 lakh over their respective manual variants.
Confirming the development of an AMT, Nissan's Senior Vice President, Takashi Hata, said that the company will use an existing manual gearbox and develop an AMT module for it. This move will certainly keep costs at check, and would also be easier to produce than a full-fledged automatic transmission.
Nissan could roll out the technology on cars like the Micra and Sunny, which is heading for a facelift this month. If the company is able to develop an AMT module for diesel engines, cars like the Terrano could also see the inclusion of this system.
[Source - Autocar India]
