A hammer tone: Dongfeng force dual clutch gearbox

On the afternoon of October 22, Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd. and GETRAG International Corporation of Germany signed an agreement in Beijing to jointly invest EUR 120 million in establishing a joint venture to jointly develop advanced low-torque dual-clutch gearboxes.

Dongfeng Motors attaches great importance to this project

Such a big joint venture project, chairman of Dongfeng Motor Corporation, Xu Ping, Chairman of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd., General Manager of Dongfeng Motor Corporation, Executive Director and President of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd. Zhu Fushou, Deputy General Manager of Dongfeng Motor Corporation Senior executives such as Liu Weidong and Zhou Wenjie attended the meeting. Xu Ping addressed the signing ceremony. Zhu Fushou and Zhou Wenjie received an exclusive media interview. This shows that Dongfeng Motors attaches great importance to this project.

Some analysts believe that the promotion of the joint venture and cooperation project of Dongfeng Motor is of great significance to reducing the gap between the domestic automobile industry and the world advanced level in the advanced transmission.

Although China has been the world’s first automobile producer for three consecutive years, the core technology remains in the hands of foreign auto companies in terms of advanced engines, advanced transmissions, and automotive electronics.

Chairman of Dongfeng Motor Corporation and chairman of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd. Xu Ping said at the signing ceremony that Dongfeng Motor’s joint venture and cooperation with GETRAG in Germany is a collection of global resources for Dongfeng Motor, accelerating the construction of its own brand powertrain and training The important measure of independent innovation ability.

According to the agreement, both Chinese and foreign parties jointly established East-style Traktor Transmission Co., Ltd. in Wuhan to research and develop, produce and sell automatic transmissions and their spare parts and components, each of which has a 50% stake in the joint venture company. The first-phase construction will achieve an annual production capacity of 250,000 CDTs (dual clutch automatic transmissions), and will gradually reach 500,000 units. The first product is a low-torque DCT jointly developed by both parties.

In an interview with the media, general manager of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. and president of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd. Zhu Fushou said that in the field of passenger vehicles, the advanced dual-clutch automatic transmission is more difficult to improve the powertrain level than advanced engines. The promotion of this joint venture project will help improve the core competitiveness of the domestic automobile industry.

A variety of ways to obtain advanced gearbox technology

Double-clutch automatic transmission can effectively reduce fuel consumption and improve driving comfort. It is a powertrain advanced technology promoted by the international automobile industry in recent years. From the perspective of the domestic auto companies' access to this technology, there are several different routes for direct import, foreign production in domestic production, overseas acquisition, independent research and development, and joint venture research and development.

At present, among domestic passenger cars, the use of dual-clutch automatic transmissions is the largest among Volkswagen's branded cars. Many of the Volkswagen, Audi, and Skoda brand models produced by FAW-Volkswagen and Shanghai Volkswagen have installed dual-clutch transmission DSGs. DSG and turbocharged in-cylinder direct-injection engine TSI, known as the gold combination of Volkswagen, domestic passenger vehicles equipped with this gold combination, has millions of possession. In addition to imports, DSG is produced by Volkswagen in a wholly foreign-owned company with core technologies in the hands of Germans. Just recently listed GAC Fiat Fischer, also equipped with a similar Volkswagen gold portfolio, including turbocharged plus cylinder direct injection engine, is a joint research and development of Fiat and BMW, dual clutch transmission is also imported.

In recent years, in the research and development of advanced gearboxes, the self-branded companies have invested a lot and have achieved certain results. Geely Automobile purchased Australian DSI, the second largest independent automatic transmission company in Australia, and introduced the core technology of DSI automatic transmission to domestic production. Geely's first 6-speed manual automated manual transmission produced at the Xiangtan plant in Changsha filled the gap in the high-end automatic transmission field of its own brand vehicles. The gap between the advanced transmission technology of the Chinese automobile industry and foreign countries has been narrowed.

BYD, a self-owned brand automobile company, has also developed a dual-clutch automatic transmission, which is installed on some BYD models together with its own advanced engine.

Master DCT core technology as soon as possible

Dongfeng Motor is taking a joint venture to develop this path. According to Zhu Fushou's statement, this technology line can master core technologies as soon as possible and rapidly produce in volume.

The parent company of GETRAG International is the world's largest independent supplier of transmissions. It has advanced technologies and products such as manual gearboxes, automated manual gearboxes and dual clutch transmissions.

According to the agreement reached by both parties, the joint venture will establish a gearbox R&D center and gradually develop a complete gearbox research and development capability. The first product is a low-torque DCT jointly developed by both parties.

The DCT double-clutch gearbox produced by the East-style Trakke can basically cover the torque segment of the domestic mainstream market, as well as Dongfeng's existing and future most of the vehicle and engine products. The main parameters of the product can meet the Dongfeng own brand passenger car. The requirements of future major models.

Some analysts believe that the technical course of DCT is in line with the technological development trend of the world's automatic transmissions and is an important strategic measure to improve the powertrain platform strategy of the Dongfeng brand passenger car. GETRAG International Corporation is one of the few well-known gearbox manufacturing enterprises that have achieved industrialization, commercial development, and production of DCT products. Through the implementation of the East-style Trak project, Dongfeng Motor will have its own automatic transmission resources and production base. The Dongfeng brand passenger vehicle's gearbox research and development capabilities, product technology and manufacturing technology levels will have leading domestic and international competitiveness.

Zhu Fushou said in response to a reporter’s question that in the future, apart from supplying Dongfeng brand passenger vehicles and Dongfeng’s joint venture company, East-style Trakla products can also provide services to other domestic automobile enterprise brands and overseas markets.