Nissan is focussing its efforts on developing an Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) gearbox for its more affordable models in India. The Japanese company currently uses its 'X-tronic' CVT gearbox on the automatic variants of the Micra and Sunny. Developed and produced by gearbox maker JATCO, a subsidiary of Nissan, the X-Tronic is one of the best CVT gearboxes around. The problem, however, is that it is expensive, especially in comparison to something as simple as Maruti's manual gearbox based AMT.
So now, with the success of the Maruti Celerio AMT, Nissan is likely to focus its efforts on the more cost-effective AMT ‘box. The AMT ‘box, however, will not be sourced from JATCO, but will be developed in-house instead. “We will take one of our existing manual gearboxes and develop an AMT module for it. This is an easy task and will be economically more viable,” said Takashi Hata, Senior Vice President, responsible for India amongst other markets.
You safely expect to see AMTs fitted to the Micra, Sunny and others in future. Furthermore, Nissan’s budget brand Datsun may also get the AMT treatment; so we could see the Datsun Go, the Go+ and the Redi Go with automatics in the future.
Aditya Bengali