Following in the footsteps of Toyota and a joint-venture between Ford and General Motors, Hyundai has completed work on its new in-house developed six-speed automatic transmission. The new gearbox will be used in vehicles with transversely-mounted powerplants.
Hyundai started development of the new transmission four years ago with reduced emissions in mind. As a result, the new unit is more than 12 percent more efficient than Hyundai’s outgoing five-speed unit, and improves performance as well.
In addition to being more fuel efficient than its five-speed counterpart, the new six-cog unit is also more than 26 pounds lighter and uses 62 fewer parts.
“The strength of our design is its completely unique layout, which makes it smaller, more compact and lighter than any other six-speed on the market today,” said Hong-Min Kim, the project manager of the transaxle at Hyundai R&D Center.
Sixteen Hyundai models are earmarked for the new transmission by 2010, including the all-new Santa Fe.
