Before talking about why Volkswagen uses dual clutch and its shortcomings, let's first review the losses that Volkswagen has suffered on dual clutch, and how Volkswagen's dual clutch is made step by step, so that now Audi has started a full-range dual clutch gearbox. In 2009, Volkswagen's latest generation Passat went on the market. This generation Passat is equipped with a brand-new dual-clutch gearbox. Compared with the old Passat, the fuel consumption per 100 kilometers is reduced by 0.3L, and the acceleration time of the 2.0T model is reduced from 9.3 seconds to 8.3 seconds. The combination of DSG (dual clutch) +TSI engine is called by the public. An epoch-making power combination? . The picture shows Passat's advertisement in 2009.
Passat, which went public that year, had high hopes, but it backfired. Although this power combination has lower fuel consumption and stronger power, it is followed by endless complaints from customers: slow? 、? When there was a traffic jam, the gearbox was overheated and the gearbox was faulty. This series of problems all point to Volkswagen's dual clutch gearbox. The end result is that the public was directly exposed by the 3. 15 party of that year. Many customers who bought Passat want to return their cars, and even some media reported that Volkswagen would give up the dual-clutch gearbox.
However, Volkswagen resisted these pressures, not only did not give up the dual-clutch gearbox, but stepped up the research and development of the dual-clutch gearbox. The root cause of the previous problem is that the clutch plate of the gearbox has poor heat dissipation and constant friction leads to overheating. Therefore, Volkswagen changed the heat dissipation mode of the clutch and adopted the way of soaking the clutch plate in oil, which was later the wet dual-clutch gearbox. By continuously optimizing the engagement and separation logic of the clutch plates of the gearbox and improving the heat dissipation efficiency, it took Volkswagen ten years to finally prove that the problem of the dual-clutch gearbox can be solved. The dual clutch gearbox has the advantages of fast shifting and high transmission efficiency, which AT and CVT gearboxes cannot have. Like the dual-clutch gearbox on the latest Audi A6, many media and customers are not depressed after the test drive, and the level of dual-clutch is the same as that of at gearbox.
Let's talk about why Volkswagen insists on using dual clutch. I think Volkswagen has its own helplessness in using the dual-clutch gearbox, which has given birth to the public's investment in research and development of the dual-clutch gearbox. First of all, the major automobile manufacturers in the world have their own considerations on the selection of gearbox types. Toyota uses AT and CVT gearboxes. The AT gearbox used by Toyota is provided by Aisin, and Toyota is Aisin's largest shareholder. The AT gearbox used by BMW is provided by ZF. The major shareholder of ZF is the Quant family, and the Quant family is also the major shareholder of BMW. The benefits can be imagined. The same is true of AT gearboxes for Mercedes-Benz and CVT gearboxes for Nissan and Honda. But what gearbox does Volkswagen use? If you use Aisin's AT gearbox, isn't it your own? Disadvantages? Exposed competitor Toyota? Therefore, in order to avoid many AT/CVT gearbox patents and prevent being stuck by competitors, Volkswagen can only start a new stove and develop dual clutches. Isn't this the same as Huawei's own development? HarmonyOS system? Is the operating system the same?
All the above are the strategic significance of the dual clutch gearbox, and I also explained its advantages and disadvantages in the article. Generally speaking, dual clutch is the future trend. It is believed that with the improvement of vehicle chip computing level, the dual clutch will be optimized more and more perfect, which is also the reason why domestic manufacturers such as Geely and Chery vigorously promote dual clutch.