> I'm not a subsciber, please paste it.
> CVT's are coming
From Automotive News
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CVT wages a battle for wider acceptance
By Wim Oude Weernink Automotive News / September 27, 2004
The Durashift CVT Ford installed on its European Focus and C-Max uses
a Van Doorne belt.
Other stories on the subject
SPOTLIGHT ON TECHNOLOGY: CVTs resolve shortcomings - 2004-09-20
SPOTLIGHT ON TECHNOLOGY: How CVTs work - 2004-09-20
TILBURG, Netherlands -- Thirty-five years after it was invented, the
continuously variable transmission, or CVT, is battling to prove
itself as an alternative to conventional manuals and automatics.
But the emphasis has shifted. The CVT debate is less about reliability
and handling high torque and more about physical packaging, customer
acceptance, product complexity and competing technologies.
And its proponents have spread beyond Van Doorne Transmissie, the
corporate legacy of Hub Van Doorne. Van Doorne Transmissie is a
subsidiary of Bosch Auto Electronics.
Hub Van Doorne introduced the CVT on his Dutch-built DAF trucks in the
late 1960s. Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG, Fiat Auto, most
Japanese automakers and transmission specialist ZF Friedrichshafen AG
use Van Doorne Transmissie's transmission belts, the heart of most
CVTs.
Van Doorne Transmissie also has a German competitor with growing
volume. LuK of Buhl, Germany, sells its competing chain to Audi and
soon will add Ford in the United States. LuK has only an 8 percent
share of the global CVT belt market.
Sharp growth?
Van Doorne Transmissie sees a big future for CVTs. From annual
production of 1 million belts in 2002, Van Doorne expects to build as
many as 2 million by 2010 to 2012 in the Netherlands, company
spokewoman Paulina Rath says.
The company projects another 2 million belts will be produced by then
by its joint venture with transmission maker Aisin-AW in Japan.
But others don't share Van Doorne Transmissie's enthusiasm. Last
spring, GM decided to end production of CVTs by 2005 at its
Szentgotthard, Hungary, plant, following quality problems. GM also
wanted to reduce the complexity of its global transmission portfolio.
Now, a high-placed BMW source says that his company will drop the CVT
for the next-generation Mini in favor of a traditional automatic.
In Germany, only 8.4 percent of Mini Coopers are sold with CVT and
just 3.2 percent of the less powerful Mini One.
Rath says that other European vehicles that are equipped with CVT
transmissions in Europe have a 5 percent to 10 percent share.
But Mercedes-Benz expects at least 50 percent of its new A-class units
debuting this fall will be sold with CVT. Ford also has high CVT
ambitions.
No belt problems
Van Doorne Transmissie confirms that there were some problems with
GM's CVT.
"But it did not have anything to do with our belt, which complied with
specifications as set by GM," Rath says.
Rath also denies that BMW's decision to abandon CVT for the
next-generation Mini had anything to do with quality.
Van Doorne Transmissie still has a 91 percent market share globally
with CVT belts. But rival LuK's share is likely to grow since it began
supplying a Ford transmission plant in Batavia, Ohio, for use in a new
CVT for the Ford Five Hundred sedan and Freestyle SUV. LuK does not
disclose production numbers.
CVTs will never completely replace other automatic transmission
systems, says ZF spokesman Martin Demel. But he adds: "In 10 years, we
expect CVTs to have a 10 percent share of the global automatic
transmission market."
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Jobst Brandt
[email protected]
