Still In its nascent stage, Indian automobile industry is witnessing a rise in the demand for automatic transmission cars year-on-year. According to a JD Power Asia Pacific Forecasting report, the usage of automatic transmission in the country is expected to touch the figure of 12% and 18% by 2016 from 9% in 2008. Despite the expected steady growth in the demand for automatic cars in the market, experts argue on the continued dominance of the traditional manual transmission on back of low awareness, high incremental cost and serviceability.
An automatic transmission has an automobile gearbox that can change gear ratios automatically as the vehicle moves, freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually. The technology has prevailed globally for decades and is soon catching up in India. But experts point out that price sensitivity of the Indian market has not helped the technology to flourish much. Automatic transmission costs anywhere between Rs 30,000 to Rs 1.2 lakh approximately, depending on the size and segment of the car. Also, this technology is perceived as low on fuel economy and high on maintenance. Arvind Saxena, Senior Vice-president, Marketing and Sales, Hyundai Motor India, explains, ?One cannot repair automatic transmission. The only way out is to replace it with new one, meaning import leading to higher cost.?
But, cons don?t win over the pros. Hyundai Motor India has seen a spurt in demand for automatic cars, which sells the i10, i20 and Verna with automatic option. Saxena from Hyundai points out that the company manages to sell 400 units of i10 automatic per month. Hyundai has stopped selling Santro automatic in the market as it did not find the project viable. Maruti Suzuki has its WagonR with automatic transmission and will soon be adding it for SX4. Tata Motors currently does not have automatic transmission on its cars, but the company is expected to get the technology on their cars soon.
So, the automatic offerings in the market are increasing, especially in the large car segments, the teething issues of bringing down incremental cost to make it mass affordable and making serviceability easy still hovers around the auto space. This is despite the fact that India is set to become a hub for small cars and has automatic transmission technology presence on export vehicles.
?There is definitely a potential for the technology in the market but one needs to cater to the related issues of incremental cost, service and fuel economy,? says VG Ramakrishnan, Director, Automotive and Transportation, Frost and Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East. He adds that commonly available automatic transmissions in the market are four, five and six speed automatic transmissions. Despite the teething issues, auto companies are witnessing a healthy demand for the automatic machines. Honda sells its City, CR-V, Accord and Civic with automatic transmission. 50% of CR-V and Accord sales are for the automatic version; 25% for Civic and 15% for City. ?Till September 2008 when we were selling old City, the demand for automatic variant stood at just 5%. From then to 15% now for new City is a strong growth,? shares Jnaneswar Sen, Vice-President, Marketing, Honda Siel Cars India.
Given the changing market dynamics transmission cars may well witness its sunrise days in the Indian market soon.