ZF sees new 9-speed gearbox as industry benchmark

The Germany-based company launched its 9HP gearbox for passenger cars with front transverse engines at the Geneva Motor Show this year. As well, it recently hosted an international press conference in which media from Asian countries including Japan and China had a chance to get a look at the company’s latest developments in driveline and chassis technology.

The main product was, of course, the 9HP itself, which boasts a high gear spread, close gear stepping, compact design, a smart modular kit principle, and quick and comfortable gearshifts.

Compared with the previously standard six-speed automatic transmissions for front-transverse installations, ZF’s 9HP considerably cuts fuel consumption and consequently emissions of carbon dioxide. The technical basis for the high efficiency of the 9HP is its very high gear spread. Nevertheless, it is possible to have particularly small gear steps thanks to the nine gear stages. 

It not only enhances driving comfort but also makes sure that the engine always runs in the most economical speed range.

Speaking at the sidelines of the news conference, ZF board member Michael Hankel expressed confidence that the 9HP would receive a good response from the market worldwide.

“The worldwide penetration of front-drive compact cars, smaller cars, is that the market share in total is roughly 75 per cent worldwide,” he said. “A lot of cars have this dimension, so they would potentially need a nine-speed automatic transmission.”

He noted that Asia-Pacific countries including Thailand and China were keen on increasing fuel efficiency and lowering carbon-dioxide emissions. “That means we see huge market dynamic in the direction, the potential for our nine-speed transmission,” Hankel said.

He added that the company wanted the 9HP to become the benchmark for the automatic-transmission industry.  

“Simply to become the first to invent an automatic transmission with nine gears is not our intention. The intention was to have the most efficient, the most comfortable and the most safe and lightweight application in this automatic-transmission technology, and we are sure we met the challenge.

“There will be others in the future but I think we actually have set the benchmark for that product, and therefore we are really convinced that the market potential in Thailand and [the rest of] Asia-Pacific, and the worldwide car population, will have a huge market dynamic in favour of our transmission technology.” 

Given the fact that many customers, especially in Asia, do not pay much attention to car parts when they buy a vehicle, Hankel acknowledged that the company still had work to do to reach more customers.

“Our products are very impressive; at least we get this feedback from the market. So people who drive [a car with an] eight-speed automatic transmission are really enthusiastic about it. Personally, I am too. It is really a nice experience, the control, the efficiency, you see it on your instrument [panel]. All those things are touchable and visible.

“Of course, we have to communicate that this is ZF. Very often people just realise we are in business but in some cases we have to communicate our content in that that this is ZF content.”

The silver-haired German stated that the company would not stop in its quest for the excellence of its products. 

“We hope that in the next five years we will have a very successful period for the technology and we will sell a lot of those transmissions. We’re really convinced that we will enhance our customer portfolio for this product so in five years there will be many more customers in the region who use this transmission. 

“Nevertheless, we also know that technology always needs innovation and new steps, so we will, of course, improve and further develop our transmissions. So we are going to have further improvements and very successful products in the next few years.”