Construction Kit for Front-Transverse
Automatic Transmissions
with 9 Speeds

In order to shape individual mobility efficiently, the drive systems of modern motor vehicles will be continuously developed. Before fully electric drives will take hold to a greater extent, automatic transmission systems play a central role in such contexts: Today, they are already more efficient in terms of fuel consumption than standard manual transmissions and still offer potential for optimization. The goal is to reduce the entire driveline's energy consumption while raising driving performance and driving comfort. Thus, it must be possible to realize all developed concepts in a cost-effective way.

World market share front-wheel drive

In general, it makes sense to use transmissions with higher transmission-ratio spreads and more gears with smaller gear steps. While there are already 7 and 8-gear transmissions with high transmission-ratio spreads on the market for longitudinally installed drivelines, this development has not yet occurred in case of vehicles with transverse-mounted front engine. This drive configuration is particularly used for compact and medium class applications, i.e. segments with small installation space requirements and high cost sensitivity on the customers' side. At the global level, those vehicles continue to win market shares. Today, in 75 percent of passenger cars, the engine is installed in transverse to the direction of travel.

This is why ZF has taken up the task to develop an automatic transmission system for this installation design which - at justifiable economic expenses - enables significant fuel savings.