ZF To Present 9-Speed Auto Trans With 16% Fuel Savings

In brief: ZF Friedrichshafen AG will present a 9-speed automatic transmission for passenger cars with front-transverse drive next month in Germany.

The word

The presentation will take place at the upcoming International VDI Conference Transmissions in Vehicles 2011. The ZG design has two models, one a 280Nm torque and the other a 480Nm.

The 9HP model (a designation, not horsepower) can deliver fuel savings of up to 16% when compared to similar 6-speed options being used today.

The ZF design is a "construction kit" so that it can be added to various types of drive trains including both parallel and series hybrid, stop-start, all-wheel drive, and other configurations.

The 9HP has a total thread of 9.84 achieved in small steps thanks to the 9 gears. This keeps the engine within fuel consumption-optimum range for most speeds. For instance, at 120km/h (74mph) the RPMs are only 1,900 rather than the 2,600 in a 6-speed.

And so ...

The ZF uses four individual gearsets with six shifting elements, achieved through use of constant-mesh, keeping the transmission roughly the same size as current models in use.

Photo credits: ZF Friedrichshafen AG