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Antonov has gone commercial.
The Warwick, U.K.-based transmission developer, founded around the unique concept of a mechanically actuated automatic, has shifted gears and now is building a business centered on more conventional products.
And like most suppliers these days, it is venturing into the world of electrification.
Founder Rouman Antonov no longer is with the company, and his Automatic Drive transmission has been closeted away, unlikely ever to see real-world application. In its place is the TX-6, a fairly standard, low-cost 6-speed automatic Antonov will build in China with a local partner.
More innovative is the developer’s 3-speed gearbox for electric vehicles, born out of an experimental program in the U.K. and now seen as the other half of the company’s 2-pronged effort to evolve from researcher into full-fledged Tier 1 supplier.
Antonov’s transition began about four years ago, when it became clear the moment had passed for the Automatic Drive gearbox, which uses naturally occurring rotational forces, rather than electronics and hydraulics, to shift gears.
Although there had been a few bites from auto makers, including nibbles from Honda and Adam Opel in 2002, Rouman Antonov was better at tweaking his concept than commercializing it. By the time the technology was perfected, the market had moved on.
Auto makers began “looking for transmissions with more gears, looking for…refinement, and that was not what the Antonov transmission was touted as,” Antonov Automotive Technologies Managing Director Simon Roberts says in an interview. “It was touted as a cheap, cheerful 4-speed transmission for lower-cost vehicles. And that’s not what the market was about (any more).
“That’s when Rouman Antonov started to take a step back. Up until that point, (Antonov) had been almost entirely a research and development company.”
Now current CEO Jos E. Haag has the firm’s focus turned 180 degrees.
The company that once said it had no interest in making transmissions, only licensing its technology, is launching a manufacturing joint venture in China with local builder Chongqing Landai Industry Co. And the transmission headed for production is pretty standard fare, not the breakthrough concept that had so enthralled inventor Rouman Antonov.
The Antonov TX-6 is a fully electronically controlled, hydraulically actuated 6-speed transmission for transverse applications, suitable with 1.5L-2.0L engines ranging from 111 to 155 lb.-ft. (150-210 Nm) of torque.
Unlike most other automatics, the TX-6 lacks a torque converter, replaced with a wet, multi-plate clutch similar to those found in dual-clutch transmissions.
Removing the torque converter has shortened the transmission’s overall length, improving packaging and, potentially, efficiency, Roberts says.
Production at the new 17.2 million-sq.-ft. (1.6 million sq.-m) plant could start up in mid-2012 on an initial low-volume line with capacity for about 50,000 units. The 50/50 JV is dubbed Chongqing EFA Transmission and will begin tooling the plant within the next five months. A second line with capacity for 200,000 units annually will follow.
“Some of the customer programs will feed into Q3 next year (and) others will be Q1 2013,” Roberts tells Ward’s. “Through the first 12 months, we could ramp up to a capacity of 50,000, and at the end of the first 10 to 12 months, we’ll be in position to ramp up higher volumes.”
Plans call for spin-offs of lower- and possibly higher-torque versions of the TX-6, and the low-volume production line will be maintained as a way to wind down old products and launch new ones as they come along.
“The strategy is to get to the market as quickly as we can with the product we have now, but then develop, very quickly, variants of that,” Roberts says.
The initial customer is China’s Lifan Industry Group, which has agreed to buy at least 20,000 TX-6 transmissions for its light vehicles in 2012. Lifan already is a key Landai customer, purchasing about 50,000-60,000 manual transmissions annually.
But the JV also is talking with “four or five” other potential customers in China, Roberts adds.
“Very quickly, we will be launching into production-application programs with three or four Chinese OEMs,” in addition to Lifan, he says. “In six months’ time, we would like to be in a strong position to conduct commercial negotiations to get them to actually commit to buying.”
