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NEWS
Seven-speed DSG coming for VW Golf GTI
But it's something like three years away – and due around the same time as Volkswagen's 10-speed DSGVolkswagen's latest Golf GTI – the seventh generation of the car that introduced the hot hatch phenomenon – will have to soldier on with a six-speed DSG transmission until 2016.
So says Michael Schäfer, Volkswagen's Head of Transmission Development, in Australia for the local launch of the new GTI this week. According to the VW exec, the performance Golf flagship will finally migrate to a seven-speed DSG transmission that year, long after the adoption of seven-speed boxes throughout the rest of the Golf range.
2016 is also the year Volkswagen will introduce its 10-speed DSG, but Schäfer says that transmission is "only for high-equipped, expensive cars." In other words, the 10-speed DSG will be reserved for high-torque, large-displacement engines, to keep fuel consumption (and all-important CO2 emissions) at the optimum level. The VW boss says that there will be no durability problems with the 10-speeder, but the fact it's reserved for high-torque models – typically larger cars – hints that the new box might be a bulky package.
Schäfer's remit covers the whole gamut of drivetrain products at Volkswagen – including epicyclic automatics (with torque converter) and even the drivetrain for the e-Golf and e-up! electric vehicles. It places him in a unique position to discuss Volkswagen's drivetrain future.
And he has some very clear views on the best way forward for his employer.
The DSG (dual-clutch) transmission type is the right sort of self-shifting transmission for Volkswagen's purposes, he indicated, since it has been received more warmly in manual-shifting Europe – Volkswagen's home base – than the epicyclic autos the company also offers.
"Every customer who comes from a manual transmission much more likes the DSG than a torque converter," he replied, when asked whether the dual-clutch transmission's popularity was a cultural preference as much as an entirely logical choice.
From Volkswagen's perspective the DSG is a more cost-effective solution than a conventional auto, because the impost for engineering and industrialisation is much the same as for any manual transmission.
Schäfer does not consider the epicylic automatic to be bottom of the heap however. His scorn for continuously variable transmissions is barely contained, in fact.
"It's accepted in Japan," he says of the modern CVT, leaving his audience to fill in the blanks. It's Schäfer's opinion that gears are more efficient than a belt, and the interaction between the CVT's belt or chain and the two pulleys places "too much pressure" on the drive belt/chain.
But CVTs can take different forms. Cite GM's use of a planetary gear set in the Chevy (Holden) Volt as a means of extending battery life by providing a higher ratio for the electric motor, and Schäfer is equally dismissive.
"The Volt is a very complicated system," he says. That second gear introduces a loss of efficiency Schäfer suggests. His take on the matter is that there is more to be gained by setting up an electric motor to run through just one reduction gear, but as efficiently as the motor can manage.
"You use the range up to 15,000 or 20,000 rpm," he explained. This has been basically Volkswagen's aim with the e-Golf (pictured) and e-up! electric vehicles. Those cars are designed primarily for city driving, and highway touring is not a major factor in their development. So one gear reduces weight and improves overall efficiency.
Returning to the subject of the Volt, Schäfer says that GM has essentially focused too much on efficiency, with no thought for what makes driving enjoyable.
"It's not the way we're used to driving," Schäfer says of the Volt. "'Fun to drive' is very important for us."
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Written byKen Gratton
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