While in the early 1980s
Maruti Suzuki (then known as Martui Udyog Ltd) set about a revolution
empowering people with the right to drive an affordable car (read Maruti 800),
the Indo Japanese joint venture company is now silently stoking another
revolution---the Automatic kind. Yes, the company is slowly and steadily ensuring
that Indians begin to understand and appreciate the automatic transmission that
makes it so easy to drive on Indian roads.
According to reliable sources,
two more of its popular models, the Swift Dzire and the WagonR will will have
the option of an automatic transmission, or the Auto Gear Shift (AGS) technology,
as Maruti Suzuki calls it. Both the Dzire and the WagonR are class leading
models that sell in large numbers in the country.
In the meantime, the sales of Maruti
Suzuki vehicles equipped with AGS have crossed 50,000 units. It may be recalled
that the Auto Gear Shift technology was introduced in India through Maruti
Suzuki Celerio, which was launched in February 2014. It was an instant success,
offering the convenience of an automatic transmission with the fuel efficiency
of a manual transmission. It is also attractively priced and easy to maintain
compared to conventional automatic transmission.
AGS was subsequently introduced in Alto K10.
Today vehicles equipped with AGS account for 25pc of sales of Celerio and Alto
K10 put together, says Maruti. The sources, however, did not mention by when
AGS would be introduced in some of the other models like the Ciaz, Swift ,
S-Cross and the soon to be launched Baleno.
Celebrating the success of
Auto Gear Shift technology, R S Kalsi, Executive Director, Marketing &
Sales, Maruti Suzuki said, “Auto Gear Shift technology’s distinct attributes
such as affordability, and convenience of driving in stop-go traffic conditions
without any compromise on fuel efficiency have led to the popularity of this
technology across India. It is another brilliant example of bringing right
technology in the right offering at right price. Aligned with our goal of
selling 2 million cars annually by 2020, we will focus on bringing these
customer friendly technologies in the future.”
AGS vehicles are popular
across the country particularly in markets like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad,
Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi.
Auto Gear Shift or automated
manual transmission (AMT) is equipped with the Intelligent Shift Control
Actuator, an electric-hydraulic actuator that automatically performs clutch and
shift operations. Auto Gear Shift combines the actuator and controller and
directly mounts them in the transmission in order to unify the working
components.
This permits synchronised control over the
clutch, shifting, and engine for smoother gear changes. As well as bringing
together the advantages of both manual and automatic transmissions, with the
AGS, the shifting time is shortened compared to conventional automatic
transmissions.
Mated with the 1 litre K-next
engine, the new generation transmission with optimized ECU calibration helps to
boost the fuel efficiency.