At the beginning of its appearance, Aisin 6AT gearbox, like spring thunder, quickly occupied a leading position in the entry-level horizontal gearbox market with the advantages of high transmission efficiency, high reliability, stable transmission ratio, smart shifting logic, very competitive price, quiet and fuel-saving.
When Aisin 6AT gearbox was introduced to the market, many manufacturers were applying some old 4AT, 5AT gearboxes and some manual gearboxes. Once Aisin 6AT gearbox was launched, it won the welcome of most overseas OEMs. In addition to overseas markets, in the domestic market, Geely, Great Wall, Chery and other first-tier car companies have not really gained a foothold under the technical impact of joint venture brands and overseas manufacturers. The objective factors such as imperfect supply system, insufficient talent reserve and short-sighted development goals have undoubtedly restricted the development of independent brands in the market.
At that time, Aisin 6AT gearbox, which was born in a famous family, became an ideal choice for some independent brands that were unable to mass-produce gearboxes and were eager to achieve success. With its own advantages, Aisin quickly seized the market gap of domestic independent brands and gradually improved the market share of gearboxes and the installed rate of independent brands; On the other hand, the prestige of Aisin is also oppressing the living space of independent brands step by step, and it is also testing the determination of independent research and development of independent brands.
With the support of core parts suppliers such as Aisin, ZF and Bosch, the car sales of independent manufacturers have increased rapidly every year in the market. But from another point of view, independent manufacturers were deeply controlled by these parts manufacturers because they didn't have enough competitive technology and chips. All self-owned brand vehicles are basically dolls, and the market homogenization is serious. It is conceivable that independent manufacturers sold the charts in the market at that time, but in the actual financial statements.
When Aisin 6AT gearbox was madly dumped in China, it was also the period with the strongest consumption power in the domestic passenger car market. On the one hand, independent manufacturers are facing a huge market with an annual production and sales of 20 million vehicles, on the other hand, they need to face an embarrassing situation: in the huge and full-fledged automobile market environment of China, they cannot breed a local brand of parts.
It should be noted that the weak strength of China enterprises in the gearbox field at that time, faced with the patent barriers controlled by many overseas established manufacturers, made the industry fully aware of the difficulties of independent research and development and independent innovation of automobile enterprises. At that time, ZF and Aisin gearboxes had a high market share and consumer recognition. Independent manufacturers were struggling to survive in the cracks, and it was not difficult to build their own gearboxes and parts supply chains.
Independent manufacturers are facing many barriers controlled by established overseas parts suppliers. When some independent manufacturers are still warming up, they are slowly crossing the river by feeling the stones in various fields, and when they can provide prototypes to the market with a little success, most independent manufacturers would rather buy famous foreign brands at a high price than give independent spare parts enterprises a supporting opportunity. Faced with such a dilemma, some independent manufacturers are willing to invest in research and development, which is unexpected.
Although from the profit point of view of manufacturers, no one can bear the responsibility of trial and error, and the newly established independent brand can not bear such a heavy responsibility. In the process of independent research and development by independent manufacturers, these manufacturers who are willing to invest can not get technical support from overseas manufacturers, nor can they be driven by domestic independent car companies, so the development prospect of automatic transmission in China is very bleak.
When the independent manufacturers are in the factional struggle of "purchasing" and "research and development", Aisin 6AT gearbox, which has always been famous for its quality and performance, is enjoying the benefits of fishermen in the market, which has been in short supply for a long time, and some manufacturers have no way to leave Aisin 6AT gearbox.
In the market, consumers at that time even judged whether a car was a good car directly by whether it was equipped with Aisin 6AT gearbox, so that Aisin gearbox once quoted a sky-high price of 9000 per set in the spare parts supply market at that time. It can be said that Aisin gearbox was the lifeline of most independent manufacturers at that time.
Facing the market and technical barriers, independent manufacturers who advocate burning money to engage in R&D can always break through. After 20 14, the proportion of 6AT and MT models launched by independent manufacturers in the domestic market decreased significantly, and they were replaced by gearboxes equipped with DCT, CVT, 8AT and 9AT, which gradually eroded the market share of Aisin 6AT.
Around 20 14, independent manufacturers began to be gradually applied to the gearbox of their own brand cars. Some of them are products developed by independent manufacturers such as Dong 'an, Sheng Rui, Wan Liyang, Chery and Great Wall, while others, such as Bimos, Wopaitai, Getrak and Jieke, have also begun to covet the supply share of auto parts in the domestic market, which has affected the dominance of Aisin 6AT gearbox.
In the face of Aisin's near-monopoly market environment and patent barriers, independent manufacturers can only "save the country by curve" if they want to break through the encirclement. Geely's acquisition of Australian DSI automatic transmission company in 2009 can be regarded as the research and development company and technology of gearbox, but it is difficult for the technical reserve of Australian DSI automatic transmission company to adapt to domestic small displacement engines.
Now, for profit-seeking suppliers, the input and output of R&D transmission are really out of proportion, and the technology obtained does not meet their actual needs, which makes independent enterprises fall into a dilemma in the field of transmission.
When almost all independent brands are struggling in the product supply chain and technology chain, Dongan Automobile Company, which has absorbed Mitsubishi technology all the year round, has developed its own brand 6AT gearbox on the basis of 4AT gearbox, which can achieve miniaturization, light weight, high efficiency and low fuel consumption, and at the same time, it has good vehicle portability and applicability, and can be applied to cars and SUV models.
This domestic 6AT gearbox, which was successfully developed by Dongan Automobile Development Co., Ltd. for six years, can be said to have ushered in a glimmer of light for the entire gearbox industry in China and restored a glimmer of confidence for its own brands, which is undoubtedly a great encouragement.
However, by the time Dongan Automobile 6AT really rolled off the assembly line, it had been quite a long time since the gold sales of the whole product cycle of Aisin 6AT gearbox, and Aisin had earned a lot of money. However, for the newly-started gearbox industry in China, Dongan 6AT gearbox, as a latecomer, is not as good as Aisin 6AT in performance, engine compatibility and user reputation.
With the passage of time, in addition to the 6AT gearbox produced by Dongan Automobile, other products such as Shengrui 8AT, Wan Liyang CVT and DCT gearbox developed by independent automobile companies have appeared in the market.
At this time, in the face of these emerging self-owned brand gearboxes, we have adopted the way of dumping at low prices, increased cooperation with China car companies, and curbed the expansion of domestic automatic gearboxes through joint ventures to reduce costs, in an attempt to drown the manufacturers and enterprises that independently research and develop gearboxes in the cradle.
As far as the first generation Shengrui 8AT gearbox is concerned, it is really average in terms of product strength. It is alleged that there are a series of problems such as low transmission efficiency, poor shift smoothness and chaotic shift logic. However, even if this gearbox is defective, it is still a product of its own brand, which is one of the main reasons why Shengrui 8AT gearbox has not withdrawn from the market.
Later, the progress of Shengrui 8AT gearbox is obvious to all. The performance of the second generation Shengrui 8AT began to rise rapidly. In addition, the products developed by our own brand have more advantages in price. After successfully matching 9 automakers such as FAW, BAIC and Chery 18 vehicles, and the market share reached 200,000 vehicles, Sheng Rui launched the third-generation 8AT gearbox in one fell swoop, which was lighter than the second-generation model. The integration level is further improved, the axial dimension is only 360mm, the weight is only 83kg, the transmission efficiency reaches 94%, and the maximum torque it can bear is increased to 380Nm, which is the pride of independent manufacturers in front of global gearbox suppliers.
Among the independent manufacturers, the technical reserves of independent manufacturers are enhanced by merging overseas gearbox manufacturers, reverse research and development, and independent development. It is undeniable that even the domestic gearbox supply industry chain has been in a vacuum for a long time, but after this time, in the field of domestic independent gearboxes, various brands can also come up with their own products. For example, Shengrui 8AT, Wan Liyang CVT, Bang Qi CVT, Great Wall 7DCT and other products, as products that have laid the foundation for independent gearboxes, originally did not expect that the strength of this generation of products can also curb those overseas manufacturers who do whatever they want. However, in the later installation evaluation, it was found that the strength of these gearboxes in all aspects was widely praised.
Aisin 6AT gearbox has gradually faded over time (of course, it is dominant now, but the situation is still much worse than in the past). In addition to independent manufacturers can come up with their own gearboxes, the purchasing demand of Aisin 6AT gearboxes has decreased, partly because the arrival of the trend of electric vehicles (hybrid vehicles) has impacted the internal combustion engine passenger car market. The popularity of pure electric (hybrid) vehicles is extremely unfriendly to the market expansion of Aisin 6AT. With more manufacturers' technical solutions, it will naturally crush Aisin 6AT's dream of dominating the China market.
In Aisin, the dream of dominating the China market has not been realized, partly because of the domestic new energy integration policy. After the introduction of this policy, if car companies continue to use 6AT, it means that they must sell more electric vehicles, otherwise they will not meet the national fuel consumption limit requirements. Even if Aisin 6AT gearbox has extremely high fuel economy, it must give electric (hybrid) vehicles a certain living space.
In the current domestic automobile market, it is undeniable that Aisin 6AT is very strong, with a high market share and market visibility, but the era when Aisin 6AT played an important role in the domestic gearbox market is gone forever. After all, independent manufacturers have enough choices to replace Aisin gearbox.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.