Vehicle Transmision Engineering in the Light of New Development Priorities in the Automotive Industry

Changing determinant factors such as rising energy costs, increasing concern about environmental protection and stronger international competition determine the importance and relative values of vehicle design features. The development priorities which are of consequence for transmissions engineering are the reduction of fuel consumption, high performance, minimization of emission levels and the improvement of ride comfort. Several examples will be used to demonstrate the extent to which gearbox development can contribute to and co-operate with vehicle engineering and the operator towards attaining progress in vehicle engineering development priorities.