RE: Hyundai Developing 10-Speed Gearbox
Monday 3rd October 2011
Question: Just how many gear ratios is too many? Well, Hyundai seems to think 10 is the magic number; the Korean automotive giant is developing an in-house-designed 10-ratio automatic gearbox that's due to be slotted into its Equus and Genesis luxury saloons (roughly equivalent to the E-class and S-class) for 2014.
Hyundai Developing 10-Speed Gearbox
For when that three-speed auto with overdrive just isn't enough...
This move (part of Hyundai's commitment to develop its own drivetrain technologies), puts Hyundai at the top of a gearbox ratio race that has seen Porsche developing a seven-speed manual for the new 911, eight-speed autos become de rigueur among luxury cars, and even pushed ZF to develop a 9-speed transmission.
So what's this technological one-upmanship about? Well, officially, it's all about the bid by global car makers to increase efficiency and cut down on emissions (that's what business news wire Bloomberg, which broke the news, says, at least).
But we can't help but feel there's a tiny bit of corporate willy-waving going on here: our gearbox has more ratios than yours... na na na-naa na. Etc etc... Now, where's that design sketch for the PH 46-speed auto gone...?
Discussion
personally I feel it would be better for the engine to be more flexible and capable, rather than to concede that there is only one rpm at which the engine is efficient and that requires n+1 gears to make it work.
^ can't help thinking of the DAF66 with CVT, and the dutch racing them backwards,...
^ can't help thinking of the DAF66 with CVT, and the dutch racing them backwards,...
My bike has 21 speeds. I tend to use 6 of them at most.
Beyond fooling the authorities that put the official mileage and emissions data together, there can be no real benefit to the driver in ever greater numbers of ratios, and a manual control of the transmission would become frustratingly complex, or as I do with my bike, just a few gears would be used more than others.
Beyond fooling the authorities that put the official mileage and emissions data together, there can be no real benefit to the driver in ever greater numbers of ratios, and a manual control of the transmission would become frustratingly complex, or as I do with my bike, just a few gears would be used more than others.
I drove an Audi A1 recently which had an eight speed box. I was moved to pen the following:
said:
This is how you accelerate in an Audi A1 1.4TFSI S-Tronic.
1) Driver floors right-hand pedal.
2) Small imp on the end of the accelerator jumps in surprise and annoyance at being awoken, telephones gearbox imp council
3) Gearbox imp council convenes, debates merits of dropping down four gears vs. three for the next ten minutes, with persuasive and emotive arguments being made on either side. This culminates in a secret ballot.
4) Ballot is counted, four gears wins. Result e-mailed to gearbox imp minions.
5) Gearbox imp minions finish brew, scratch their tiny backsides, select one of the seven gears agreed on by gearbox imp council, semaphore signal sent to engine room.
6) Losing side demands re-count with UN supervision. UN election imps arrive, three gears found to have 108% of vote. Four gears side found guilty of corruption, placed under bell-housing arrest. Result of re-count e-mailed to engine room.
7) With much tutting, gearbox imp minions grudgingly begin to undo the work they had previously completed, and weld the new gear into place with their tiny torches. Second semaphore sent to engine room, complete with editorialisation ref. suspect parentage of gearbox imp council.
8) Engine room imps receive semaphore, titter heartily. Runner sent to fetch resident hamster tamer. Hamster tamer commences feeding nutritionally balanced lunch to hamster, followed by a short nap. Then, After a period of mental preparation, engine hamster steps onto his wheel and begins to sprint.
9) Just 15 minutes after you first signalled your intent, forward velocity begins to increase.
In short, I'd say that a six-speed manual, aligned to an appropriately torquey powerplant, should be just fine, ta.1) Driver floors right-hand pedal.
2) Small imp on the end of the accelerator jumps in surprise and annoyance at being awoken, telephones gearbox imp council
3) Gearbox imp council convenes, debates merits of dropping down four gears vs. three for the next ten minutes, with persuasive and emotive arguments being made on either side. This culminates in a secret ballot.
4) Ballot is counted, four gears wins. Result e-mailed to gearbox imp minions.
5) Gearbox imp minions finish brew, scratch their tiny backsides, select one of the seven gears agreed on by gearbox imp council, semaphore signal sent to engine room.
6) Losing side demands re-count with UN supervision. UN election imps arrive, three gears found to have 108% of vote. Four gears side found guilty of corruption, placed under bell-housing arrest. Result of re-count e-mailed to engine room.
7) With much tutting, gearbox imp minions grudgingly begin to undo the work they had previously completed, and weld the new gear into place with their tiny torches. Second semaphore sent to engine room, complete with editorialisation ref. suspect parentage of gearbox imp council.
8) Engine room imps receive semaphore, titter heartily. Runner sent to fetch resident hamster tamer. Hamster tamer commences feeding nutritionally balanced lunch to hamster, followed by a short nap. Then, After a period of mental preparation, engine hamster steps onto his wheel and begins to sprint.
9) Just 15 minutes after you first signalled your intent, forward velocity begins to increase.
Lawrence5 said:
Saw that hyundai Genesis in the states thought someone had buggered about with a c-class. Merc really should sue over that design.... oh and equus is a play where a boy shags a horse - bad naming too 
Wait......wait......wait.....A play where a boy shags a horse? Seriously?
Presumably there is a law of diminising returns here? I mean, it takes a certain ammount of time to change gear smoothly, and whilst that's happening, you're getting no power at all. Put too many ratios in and the gearbox will be spending too much time going up and down through them and it actually starts to counter the efficiency gain of being in "just the right" ratio at a given engine speed? I've driven plenty of 5 speeds and thouught "Hm, this could do with a 6th" but never been in a 6 speed and thought "What I could really do with right now is 7th", so presumably we're already pretty close to that point?
I'm curious about how they've achieved this. I thought perhaps it could only really be a CVT with fixed "intervals" but an auto box isn't laid out like a conventional box. It has sets of sun/planet gears, and one set can provide you with (I think) 3 different ratios plus reverse. Mate one set to another in front of it, and you can possibly has 3 X 3 ratios. Mate another set in front of those and you get 3 x 3 x 3 ratios. All this does is lengthen the box by (what?) 10 inches?
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