Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
M&M to drive in 1st India-made automatic gearbox
By siliconindia
|
Tuesday, 11 September 2007, 19:30 IST
New Delhi: By offering automatic transmission in its vehicles, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) becomes the first Indian company utility vehicle maker to develop an indigenous automatic transmission which will be initially strapped on its Scorpio SUV, reported The Economic Times.
The new technology being developed by M&M's research and development centre at Nasik will take it ahead of its rival and India's largest Indian automobile company, Tata Motors, which offers manual transmission in all its vehicles.
As per ccording to a company source, M&M is working on a six-speed automatic transmission for the flagship Scorpio model. This model is expected to be launched in 2008 and will debut both in the domestic and the overseas markets, including South Africa and the U.S.
According to a company source, by partnering with European technical (possibly Renault),M&M is developing the automatic transmission, which would be based on the much superior tourque-convertor technology, rather than the conventional continuous variable transmission technology.
"We have developed the technology for commercial production and it is in the final stages of testing. It's state-of-the art technology, which will be offered for the first time in India and will take our vehicles to the next level of performance on a par with our Korean and Japanese competitors," a company source said.
Besides the Scorpio, the automatic transmission will also be strapped on the proposed multi-utility vehicle Ingenio and the Mahindra AXE, a special vehicle for the defence forces. The company plans to launch four new platforms and 10 new products by 2010.