The Maruti Celerio is the first ‘Automated Manual Transmission’ car to be launched in India, but it won’t be the last, predicts Kushan Mitra
In America, almost every car is sold with an automatic transmission, so much so that manual transmission cars (called ‘stick shifts’) actually command a lower insurance premium. Because thieves, more often than not, don’t know how to drive a manual car. Across the rest of the world as well, automatic transmission cars are becoming more and more popular. In addition to that, it is making life a lot easier in start-stop traffic by eliminating the constant need to clutch and shift between first-second-third gears. Driving down the Western Express Highway or Mathura Road during gridlock is a challenging experience. Yet, in India, automatic cars account for fewer than five per cent of the sales.
And even that five per cent, is primarily due to the fact that luxury car makers such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes do not offer manual transmission cars in India. When it comes to small cars, or to be more precise, small cars below four meters in length, sales of automatic versions can be counted in thousands. Considering that almost a million and a half small cars were sold in India last year, that number is miniscule.
There are a couple of reasons to this. The first is a factor of cost, automatic transmission variants of cars is often substantially higher than the manual versions. For Maruti’s A-Star for example, the regular VXi variant costs Rs 4.16 lakh; the automatic variant costs Rs 4.74 lakh. That coupled with the belief that automatic cars give a worse fuel-economy than manual cars kept sales of the automatics very limited.
The second fact is quite clearly a myth now; advanced automatic transmissions such as the eight-speed transmission by ZF fitted on modern BMW’s, is so advanced and so precise that it delivers a better fuel economy than manual transmission cars. However, in small cars, the automatic versions usually have fewer gears than manual cars—four-speed gearboxes instead of five-speed, which accounts for their lower fuel economy.
As for the first problem, the higher cost of automatic transmission cars, the Italian company Magnetti-Marelli has developed an ‘Automated Manual Transmission’ (AMT). Derived from technology developed from Formula 1, this technology allows drivers to change gears sequentially without using a clutch if they want to, or change gears for the driver fully automatically. It uses a servo motor to hydraulically actuate the gear change depending on the conditions.
So the technology does not need the expensive requirements of a traditional automatic, but like a traditional automatic it removes the requirement of a clutch. In addition, Magnetti-Marelli claims that the AMT improves both fuel economy and reduces harmful emissions.
But how is it to driveIJ
A few weeks ago, Maruti-Suzuki, which is the first company to launch the AMT with their Celerio invited several journalists for a drive to Jodhpur. The Celerio looks like a typical small Maruti car, it is not anything great to look at, a slightly sleeker version of a tall-boy design; relatively comfortable for the price with a decent set of features. The AMT is fitted only on the base-level lXi and mid-level VXi specification of the Celerio. It bypasses the top-end ZXi specification completely. This is possibly because the boffins at Maruti believed that such a car might gnaw into sales of entry-level Swift’s.
How is the pick-up of the AMT variantIJ Not bad in all honesty, the 1-litre K+ series engine is similar to that fitted on the WagonR. It has enough low-end grunts but does run out of puff a bit later on. However, the AMT system in full ‘automatic’ mode is smart enough to realise when the driver wants a little bit of pep or to drive in economy mode.
It is also smart enough to realise when the car is climbing up a hill and needs to stay in a lower gear. The climb up to Mehrangarh Fort is not challenging, yet an older automatic might have changed up leaving the car without the oomph it needs to carry on the climb quickly. The Celerio’s AMT did not change gear while climbing up, it carried on climbing quite peacefully.
The AMT version is actually the most fun for car reviewers when you slot it in the ‘manual’ mode. This involves shifting the gear lever through a gate and allows the driver to change gear by toggling the lever up and down. In an emergency braking situation, the AMT will, despite the ‘Manual’ mode, automatically shift down, however up-shifts still require the driver’s input. All of this without the need for a clutch. On the highway, this sort of shifting allows you to change gears when you, say, need to overtake slow-moving trucks.
And the Celerio is priced smartly too. On the VXi variant, the price difference between the Manual version (Rs 4.2 lakh) and the AMT version (Rs 4.59 lakh) is under Rs 40,000; half the price difference between manual versions and automatic versions.
The Celerio has been on sale all of February and Maruti claims that it has received 20,000 bookings of which, half are for the AMT version. Indeed, based on the success of the Celerio, Maruti might bring AMT to more of its cars going forward. But it is not just Maruti, because Magnetti-Marelli believes that AMT’s might do well in India. They have invested in adding production at the their Indian facilities. Tata Motors has already announced that AMT will be offered on their next-generation Bolt and Zest cars. Other manufacturers might follow suit.
It might take a while for domestic car sales to pick up in India after the slowdown, but 2014 might be remembered as the year that the automatic revolution finally came to the Indian roads.