Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) has announced that all its vehicles will be equipped with Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) gearboxes by 2018.
The car maker, which recently celebrated 20 years of its operations in India, is confident that the addition of AMT gearboxes will turn out to be a beneficial step for the company. The gearboxes are touted to be self-manufactured and will come equipped on mid-level hatchbacks and entry-level sedans.
The AMT technology, which offers the advantages of lesser cost, rider flexibility and better fuel economy, has become very popular among Indian customers and the demand for AMT cars is going up considerably in recent times.
In 2014 Maruti Suzuki launched the Celerio with AMT gearbox and received good response from buyers. This was followed by the Tata Zest and facelifted Maruti Suzuki Alto K10. From then on, many manufacturers came up with AMT variants of their cars and now many more vehicles are in the pipeline. No wonder the demand for AMT cars has gone up considerably in the country.
AMT technology has helped manufacturers boost volume sales in the mid-level hatchback and compact sedan segments. Also, the difference in cost between AMT and manual transmission versions of cars is not much.
Though Hyundai has not disclosed which product would get the AMT, it is learnt that gradually the whole range will be equipped with AMTs for better volume sales by 2018. This might be good news for Hyundai loyalists who would love to see AMT technology in its cars.
Source : BS Motoring