AMT Technology

The automotive industry has been growing at a steady pace, with innovations coming in now and then. The past few years have been significant in terms of designs, especially for the Indian automotive industry. Furthermore, the technology in the discussion would be the Automated Manual Transmission - AMT for short. While automatic transmission technology has been here for almost four decades on the planet, it was not until the AMT introduction that automatic cars began to gain popularity in India.

Maruti Suzuki has always been a big player in the Indian car industry. They rely mainly on the more brand, more sale theory. In 2014, there was the Alto 800, K10, WagonR, Estilo, Swift, and the Ritz on sale. Maruti decided to go with one more car, the Celerio. Why one more, you may ask. But this wasn't another small hatchback. Instead, it was Maruti's way of introducing relatively new technology into the market.

Yes, it was the Celerio that first introduced the Automated Manual Transmission in India. Maruti calls it the Automated Gear Shift or AGS technology. It was a great move back then as it would give a clutch-free driving experience without compromising the fuel economy. The Celerio AGS gave a whopping 24 kilometers to the liter, a number which most other stick-shift hatchbacks would be aspiring to get. The AGS bandwagon soon included the WagonR, K10, Swift, Ignis, and the Dzire. The higher-end Marutis are still powered either by the 4-speed AT (Ciaz and Ertiga) or the CVT on the Baleno.

But the AMT craze did not end here. Other manufacturers were visibly surprised as Maruti began to sell their AGS cars like hotcakes. So, it wasn't long before the others entered the fray. Renault equipped the Kwid and the Duster diesel with their Easy-R AMT. Tata's Tiago-Tigor twins also got the AMT treatment, and so did Mahindra's XUV300 and TUV300. The Automated Manual Transmission became a rage like never before, with many city buyers heavily shifting towards this new technology.

How does it work?

The Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT), and the Simple Automatic Transmission all have a clutch and gearbox setup quite different from a manual transmission setup. But the AMT uses the same format of a manual transmission; it only differs in operation. The regular clutch pedal in a manual transmission is replaced by a hydraulic actuator system that works in the way it is pre-programmed from the factory.

The ECU is the brain of a car. At what required RPM, the vehicle should upshift, and when should it downshift, are programmed in the ECU at the factory itself. There is a link between the hydraulic system's actuators to the ECU. The hydraulic actuators provide the necessary action of a clutch pedal, and the gearshift takes place. Another essential feature of the AMT is the optional manual drive mode. Instead of a clutch pedal here, you slot the gear into the plus sign, and the car upshifts; for the downshifts, slot it into the minus sign.

With all the talk about the AMTs done, one might think it was Maruti themselves that produced the AMTs. Then you're mistaken. Italian components major Magneto Marelli was the pioneer of this technology. But credit to Maruti for making them so prevalent in this market of the world auto-industry.