Jatco Geared to Meet Growing Global CVT Demand

FUJI, Japan – For Jatco, the world’s largest manufacturer of CVTs, business is looking up, up and up some more.

The transmission supplier, a Nissan subsidiary, is expected to report record production, sales and earnings when it discloses its fiscal 2014 financial results this month.

Sales and earnings, though still not disclosed, are expected to grow nearly 10% from fiscal 2013’s record levels of ¥710 billion ($6.0 billion) and ¥46.9 billion ($393 million), respectively.

Management claims to be on track to reach its ¥1 trillion ($8.4 billion) sales target by fiscal 2018 and become the world’s top producer of automatic transmissions by 2020.

Evidence of the year’s strong performance can be seen on a walk through the second line in Jatco’s Fuji plant where the supplier makes CVT7 transmissions for front-wheel-drive cars. The gearbox mates to engines ranging from 0.66L to 1.8L.

Renovated in 2009, the line turns out a CVT every 33 seconds, 92 per hour and 2,000 per day. The line operates 24 hours per day, seven days a week.

“Nine-two is as good as we can do,” a plant official says, adding the line supplies CVT7s to Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand), Suzuki and GM Korea. The plant’s No.1 line produces older-generation units.

Jatco began consolidating its CVT lineup around the CVT7 and CVT8 in 2009. In calendar 2014 it produced 2.1 million CVT7s and 1.4 million CVT8s as well as 15,000 hybrid versions of the CVT8.

The CVT8 pairs with engines ranging from 2.0L to 3.5L.

Including step-type transmissions ranging up to 7-speeds, JATCO produced a total of 5.5 million units in 2014.

Vehicles equipped with Jatco’s CVT7 include the Nissan Dayz microcar, Dayz Roox microvan, Cube, Juke, Latio, Note and March (also sold as the Micra and Sylphy); Suzuki’s Alto Eco, Hustler, Palette, Swift and Wagon R; Mitsubishi’s Mirage; GM Korea’s Spark; and Renault Samsung’s SM3.

The CVT8 has been adopted by Nissan for the Altima, NV200 taxi, Pathinder, Quashqai diesel, Rogue, Serena, Teana and X-Trail, as well as Mitsubishi’s RVR. The CVT8 hybrid transmission goes into Nissan’s Pathfinder and Infiniti QX60 SUVs.

Jatco in September opened a second CVT plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico, which produces both CVT8 and CVT8 Hybrid transmissions, raising the facility’s annual capacity from 1.3 million to 1.7 million units.

Globally, Jatco now has capacity outside Japan for more than 3 million units, including its plants in Thailand and China.