cti21212How many gears are enough or how can cars become more efficient and economical without drivers having to forego driving fun? These and other questions were the focus of the 11th International CTI Symposium “Innovative Vehicle Transmissions, Hybrid and Electric Drives”, which took place from December 3rd to 6th, 2012 in Berlin. The variety of concepts for the different vehicle classes in the individual countries will remain with us in the future. Who will drive the cars in the future, and how, is a new challenge that the motorists are facing in addition to CO2Must make reductions and fuel savings. Because the younger generation is increasingly focusing on individual mobility.

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"The 11. Transmission Symposium clearly showed that one has to find driving concepts that are cost efficient as possible. You must meet the different market requirements of different countries and are additionally complicated by the electrification, "said Professor Dr.-Ing. Ferit Küçükay, Chairman of the Advisory Board and Director of the Institute of Automotive Engineering at TU Braunschweig. "Where you will come to the electrification not around," he concluded later after the presentations and findings of the second day. In addition to the presentations of new technologies, products and concepts - in particular of many new hybrid concepts - 110 by national and international speakers have been around 1000 the participants in this year's global market demands explained. You also get an overview of where the mobility is generally develop in this world. Like a red thread, the question of the number of threads moved by the event.

Plenary 1. Day sobering, energetic and passable

Küçükay plenary opened with the good news that the vehicle transmission and power sector continues to boom prevails, because the global automobile market is growing, and the political, economic and social conditions for the CO2- Energy and discussions for "electric boosted" Development of high efficiency drives ensured. This was a unique development in the history of automobiles. In Germany alone, you invest in the next four years, twelve billion euros in the development of alternative drive systems. However, going to the very high expectations of the hype around electric mobility back significantly, which should continue in the coming years too, the expert said.

For Dr. Tobias Lösche-ter Horst, Head of Group Research Drives at Volkswagen, it is no longer enough to simply increase the efficiency of the units with, for example, innovative, turbocharged downsized engines and dual clutch transmissions. Rather, he would like to include biofuels and renewable energies, as they are essential for sustainable mobility and reduce both fleet consumption and emissions. From his point of view, the plug-in hybrids also played a major role in the introduction of electric mobility. Nevertheless, customers expect full comfort, low costs, short charging times, safety, top quality and service and do not want to compromise, explains the drive expert and explains: In a moderate scenario, the global market share of vehicles with internal combustion engines including REEV (Rbe-extended Electric Vehicles) and HEV (HEVs) drop to 2050 percent by 45. If the market share is reduced to a minimum, BEV (Batterypowered electric vehicle) and REEV have a market share of 80 percent worldwide.

 cti31212"? Are four enough," asked Dr. Günter Karl Fraidl by AVL List and answered it also the same for the engines: "Four cylinders are enough, but six more fun." In today's engine technology, the use of higher coefficients in terms of consumption and driving pleasure is certainly useful. Future engine technologies, especially if they are very strong in connection with the transmission development are, one could reduce the number of transitions significantly. For electrified powertrains imagine, however rather the question of whether there should be four or even just two.

Dr. Gary J. Smith, Executive Director Global Research & Development General Motors Company (GM), reported that GM is making great efforts towards individual mobility - a trend that was discussed several times at the symposium. GM sees the urbanization as a great challenge against the background that in the mega-cities the number of people per square kilometer is growing dramatically. "We are in a very exciting age, we may have nine billion people on our planet driving two billion cars by 2050". A global architecture is necessary and there is still 50 percent efficiency potential to be developed in a wide variety of drive concepts. With the eAssist, his company offers a scalable multiple hybrid from small cars to luxury bodies.

Bernd Eckl, Excecutive Vice President of Sales, Marketing, Business Development, and Didie Lexa, Chief Technology Officer, GETRAG International, addressed the question of how many courses require the transmission for different markets. Both see that the dual clutch transmission (DCT) will double its market share in the next six years, the manual transmission (MT), the world's number 1 will remain in the coming years and stay with MTs as AMTs 5 transitions dominant. In your opinion, for DCTs 7 courses at a spread of up to 8.5 for heavy-duty diesel and gasoline engines for 7.5 are the best choice for vehicles with lower power to weight ratio, they see a translation of 7 with no more than 7 courses.

Automatic transmissions will gain market share, whereby the share of 3-, 4- and 5-speed gears will decrease sharply in favor of 6-, 8- and 9-speed gears and the CVT transmissions will continue to increase. Electric transmissions would only grow by three percent. While the transmission architecture is becoming even more colorful, Eckl believes that “we will have a conflict with costs. The spread would have a significantly more significant influence on the efficiency than the number of gears, but the control would be much more important. It should also be noted that different markets have different requirements that are met by the different types of transmission.

Panel Discussion: Active Transmission as transient phenomenon or sustainable trend?

cti61212This question was addressed by the panel discussion “Shifting values ​​- from the engine to the active transmission”, which the participants answered by means of a TED survey. The vehicle transmission as an active transmission has developed from a simple torque converter to a multifunctional system in the hybrid drive train. Whether it will establish itself as a vehicle transmission in the future depends crucially on whether electrification of the drive train will prevail, according to moderator Ulrich Walter.

One million electric vehicles worldwide - more than a third of the participants believe that this will only be feasible in 2020. However, the discussion in the podium also showed that internal combustion engines in the most diverse forms of hybridization will continue to exist for a very long time. The customer still needs time to get used to the additional costs and the new technology, explained Gerhard Henning, Center Manager for Transmissions and Powertrain Cars at Daimler, explaining this result. Prof. Dr. Stefan Pischiner, Head of the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Director of the Institute for Thermodynamics at RWTH Aachen University, is convinced that plug-in hybrids will become mainstream, but also believes: “If you want to reach the masses with the electric car, you have to First take away the customer's fear of limiting the range. "

In the opinion of the participants, the functional integration of electrification and developing a business idea from new concepts are the two biggest challenges in future transmission development. Pischinger believes, however, that it is more the cost: “There are a lot of transmission and integration concepts. But now you have to manage to bring them to market at low cost. ”According to the TED survey, most of those present think their company is well-equipped for the challenges ahead. Gerd Bofinger, Head of Transmission Development at Porsche: "A structural change has taken place between the engine and transmission developers towards more cooperation". Yo Usuba, Executive Vice President of Jatco Ltd., wants to change the mindset of its engineers to give them a better understanding of the big picture. One is faced with the dilemma of reducing CO2 while optimizing driving performance. The preferences depending on the type of transmission are distributed differently in the countries: In the EU, it is more dual clutch transmissions (DCT) and automated manual transmissions, in Japan continuously variable CVT transmissions dominate, in the USA automatic transmissions. So far, there has not been a single transmission solution for everyone. Two things are important to Jatco: energy and driving force management.

Daimler is one of the few automobile manufacturers who still develop the transmission itself. However, the new “Fit for Leadership” program is intended to save two million euros by 2014 - also through more components being supplied. “It is very difficult to find suitable suppliers for this,” says Henning, and there is no supplier market in the form that Daimler needs. For cost reasons, a global harmonization of the individual countries must take place and the regions should approach each other, said Usaba, while Henning pointed out that it was very difficult to change cultures.

Most of the audience answered yes to whether gearboxes will be upgraded in favor of the engine in the future. "We're at a war with efficiencies," said Smith. According to Bofinger, everything must be done to exploit the potential of the internal combustion engine. From Usuba's point of view, the engine still comes first and the gearbox is forgotten. But it is important to consider both. According to Pischinger, an upgrade will take place because there is an increasing transition from simple manual transmission to automatic transmission, but also through the integration of further functionalities such as hybridization. The complexity of the engine will continue to increase, one example being the variable compression, Pischinger added. The discussion shows that the term active transmission is still in the definition phase and it is not yet entirely clear which functions an active transmission should take on. However, Henning cannot imagine that the transmission controls everything. Rolf Najork, Head of Business Unit E-Mobility and R&D Transmissions, Member of the Automotive Management, Schaeffler Technologies, sees two different philosophies in active transmissions: that of the European manufacturers with their complicated motors and transmissions and that of the Japanese manufacturer Toyota, which simplifies its motors and that Make the transmission with the electric unit more efficient. “I could imagine that Toyota's path would offer a better starting point for a later expansion towards electrification,” said Najork.

When asked about the number of courses, 50 percent of the participants opted for six to eight courses. Environmental awareness with 30 percent and driving pleasure with 23 percent were ultimately the personal motivations of the participants to buy a vehicle that can drive more than 20 kilometers electrically.

Plenary 2. Day: Clean Diesel in driving pleasure and altered consumer behavior

From Korea said Sung-Ho Cho, Vice President of Hyundai Powertech, on the fast-growing automotive business in his country which has achieved within a short time its technological independence. Korea should be a leader in the development of clean diesel and the automatic transmission is on the rise, their share amounts to currently 95 percent. This was due partly due to the topographical situation in Korea - over 70 percent of the country consists of mountains - the increase of female riders and national characteristics. Since 2009 Korea is the world's fifth-largest automotive industry: 2011 4.5 million vehicles were produced, which were approximately six percent of global production. Since the automatic transmission are 1990er the "mainstream", as regards transmission. Future research should take into account definitely environmentally friendly specifications, concluded the research director of Hyundai.

cti41212"If you don't do it yourself, others will do it for you," warned Philip Gott, Senior Director Long Range Planning & Sustainability Solutions, IHS Global Insight, Inc. from the USA, the world's OEM. What is meant is the reaction to the changed purchasing behavior of the generation up to 40. He is addressing a new problem for motorists. With the saying “Carsharing is the world as it should be and not as it will be”, he reinforced his warning. If the number of vehicles registered worldwide doubles to three billion by 2030, emissions will have to be reduced by a factor of four. The new generation will create new problems for us, those that lie beyond the problems we believe we can solve today, such as CO2Reduction or fuel economy. In the U.S. share today, half a million people 7700 vehicles.

According to Franco Cimatti, Chief of Vehicle Concept and Pre-development Deptartment Ferrari GT, there are any more down to driving fun with all global and electrification. The aim of which is also at Ferrari, to improve the efficiency.

Patrick Signargout, Vice President Car Manufacturers Relations and Co-operations PSA Peugeot Citroën spoke about the first diesel hybrid with all-wheel drive. The hybrid range at PSA generally comprises a broad spectrum from start-stop systems to electric vehicles. The second largest manufacturer in Europe has the best CO this year with a fleet average of 123 g / km2Value in the EU reached. Modularity is important to keep the development costs and times in the frame. Still alone on the hybrid 4 Development participated 500 engineers.  

Trade talk: Concepts for the vehicles in the BRIC markets

cti51212The international orientation of the symposium culminated in the specialist discussion “BRIC markets: which transmission and drive concept for which vehicle classes?” With participants from India, USA, Italy, Russia and Germany. The discussion showed once again how much still needs to be done to ensure that the numerous different transmission concepts do justice to the cost pressure. There will continue to be so many concepts because global market requirements require them. There are very cost-sensitive markets like India, where automatic transmissions still need a lot of time. . In the Russian market, fuel costs are less of a priority than elsewhere and hybrid technology is not even available. China, with almost 100 percent internal combustion engines, is far too big to establish a concept for everyone. In addition, there was a disenchantment with e-mobility. But China needs a new technology to master the megatrends. Global service is important and production should also be global.