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Although China has invested over 20 years in the research and development of Automated Manual Transmission (AMT), significant scientific achievements have been made. However, despite this progress, the R&D of China's own brand AMT remains at the prototype stage, without achieving industrialization. As a result, most automatic transmissions in the market are still imported from abroad. During the "Automotive AMT Industrialization Standards and Laboratory Seminar," co-organized by the Gear Professional Association and the China Association of Automotive Engineers' Gear Machining Committee, Secretary General Wang Shengtang emphasized that the industrialization of AMT in China is a challenging process. He stated that the seminar was aimed at promoting the commercialization of domestic AMT through the establishment of technical standards and the creation of an AMT laboratory.
The future of the automatic transmission market looks promising. According to Li Shengqi, deputy secretary-general of the association, AMT offers clear advantages over manual transmissions and is considered a key direction for automotive transmission development in this century. Currently, automatic transmissions are categorized into three types: electronically controlled mechanical, continuously variable, and hydraulically or electrically controlled. Among them, AMT is an electronically controlled mechanical type, built upon traditional mechanical transmissions (MT) with the addition of an Automatic Shift Control System (ASCS). This system uses actuators—hydraulic, pneumatic, or electric—controlled by microcontrollers to replace human-operated clutches and shifters, enabling fully automatic shifting.
Li Shengqi believes that due to its automatic shifting function, AMT can significantly extend the life of the clutch and synchronizer, improve driving safety, while retaining the high efficiency, compact size, simple structure, reliability, ease of manufacturing, low cost, and low fuel consumption of traditional mechanical transmissions. These features make AMT particularly suitable for China’s conditions, especially under current environmental regulations and rising fuel prices. Therefore, AMT holds great market potential and is a key focus for research and development in China's automotive industry.
In recent years, with the rapid growth of China's automobile industry, the demand for automatic transmissions has been steadily increasing. In 2006 alone, the import value of car automatic transmissions reached $1.637 billion, accounting for nearly 50% of the total gear product imports. Although exact figures are not available, industry experts estimate that the actual amount could exceed $2 billion.
At the same time, major foreign transmission companies such as Aisin, Aida (Japan), ZF, GETRAK (Germany), and BorgWarner (USA) have all established factories in China, effectively controlling the local automatic transmission market. Despite this, most automatic transmissions are still imported. Li Shengqi noted that China began researching AMT as early as the 1980s, with over two decades of effort involving multiple generations of researchers and engineers from universities and research institutions.
Chinese scientists have conducted extensive theoretical studies, product design, and testing on AMT, including clutch control technology, starting laws, shifting strategies, and actuator performance. They have achieved breakthroughs in areas like dynamic three-parameter control shifts, with some results reaching international standards. Over the past 20 years, more than 10 national and provincial science and technology awards have been won, along with nearly 40 national invention and utility model patents. The book "Theory and Design of Vehicle Automatic Transmission" and over 150 academic papers have also been published, showcasing the depth and breadth of China's AMT research.
Despite these achievements, Wang Shengtang pointed out that the R&D of China's own branded AMT has not yet reached industrialization. He attributed this to two main factors: first, multinational corporations impose technical blockades and maintain monopolies, controlling the supply chain and making most transmissions depend on imports or locally produced by foreign-invested companies. Second, China faces challenges such as fragmented resources, insufficient investment, limited road testing data, and a lack of standardized evaluation systems for AMT. Additionally, there is a lack of close collaboration between vehicle and engine manufacturers, leading to inadequate integration of social resources and insufficient policy support.