8-, 9-Speeds, CVTs Make ’15 Gains

The 4-speed automatic transmission appears to be suffering death spasms in model year ’15 as its more sophisticated brethren, especially 8- and 9-speed automatics and CVTs, gain ground, a WardsAuto survey shows.

Analyzing transmission-installation data for ’15-model LVs at the midpoint in the model run, WardsAuto finds the 6-speed automatic still the dominant transmission type, driving 61.7% of 13,526,168 ’15 models tallied in the survey period.

That is slightly ahead of the 61.1% rate for the 17,705,269 vehicles counted in the entire ’14 model year, but less than the record 63.7% garnered in the ’13 run, when LV volume totaled 17,216,732 units.

The need to meet increasingly stringent government fuel-economy regulations largely is behind the move to more gears, with 8- and 9-speed automatics accounting for a record 12% in ’15, up from 8.8% the prior year and just 4.0% in ’13, the first year they appeared in the survey.

In particular, the 9-speed has come from nowhere three years ago to capture a 3.4% share in ’15, including 4.3% of cars and 2.8% of light trucks, while the 8-speed is at a record 8.6% of this year’s LVs –9.5% in light trucks and 7.4% in cars.

Also at an all-time high, CVTs went into 13.1% of ’15 models to date, up from 12.1% a year earlier and just 5.6% seven years ago.

The CVT owes much to its popularity in cars, where it has been installed in a record 22.5% of ’15 models vs. 18.9% a year ago and way more than double the 8.6% rate seen in ’08.

However, CVTs have a significantly lower rate in the light-truck field, where they have been installed in 6.1% of ’15 models, mostly in CUVs, where its suitability to front- and all-wheel-drive applications is its forte.

 On the other hand, the 4-speed automatic, accounting for a mere 0.8% of LVs this year, vs. 2.0% a year ago, likely will follow the once-dominate 3-speed automatic into oblivion in a year or so.

Also on the decline is the 5-speed automatic, residing in just 8.3% of ’15 models, mostly in the light-truck segment, where it still holds a 10.7% share as opposed to just 0.4% in cars.

Also on the losing side in the transmission game is the manual transmission in any form.

Manuals were installed in just 3.9% of the ’15 models surveyed, down from 4.5% in ’14 and 6.8% in the ’08 model year.

Already manual transmissions have all but disappeared from light trucks, where they have garnered a minuscule 0.7% usage rate both this year and in ’14.

Although still in the minority, the manual is more popular among car buyers, especially those seeking a more traditional driving experience in high-performance machines, as well as on some entry-level small cars, where price is a factor. It accounts for 8.2% of ’15-model cars in the survey, compared with 9.4% in ’14.

But even among younger buyers of high-performance cars, manual transmissions have been losing much of their luster to new high-tech dual-clutch automatics with steering-wheel-mount paddle shifters, first developed for race cars.

Older drivers, adept at using a clutch pedal and a floor-mounted shift lever, are said to constitute the bulk of those opting for the traditional manual gearboxes.

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