Volkswagen starts to build transmission plant in northeastern city of Dalian

Shanghai. March 12 (Gasgoo.com) – Volkswagen started to build a $400 million transmission plant in China’s northeastern coastal city of Dalian and the plant is expected to start production by 2009, according to Shanghai Securities News today.

 

The plant will produce DSG transmissions to be equipped on Magotan and Tiguan vehicles produced by Shanghai VW and FAW-VW. With a total investment of 200 million to 300 million euros, the project is designed to have an output capacity of 300,000 DSG transmissions, according to Li De Re, the Mayor of Dalian.

 

The local production of DSG transmission is part of Volkswagen’s localization strategy in China, the Shanghai Securities News said.

 

DSG stands for direct-shifting gearbox. The new technology enables a manual transmission to evolve and perform like an automatic transmission, yet deliver significantly improved vehicle fuel economy over automatic transmissions of today.

 

Separately, Volkswagen announced early in January to apply 7-speed DSG technology to Golf and Golf Plus produced by FAW-VW. The new unit will initially start series production in the Golf and Golf Plus, and is available for the 1.4 TSI engine (90 kW), previously only available with a manual gearbox, and for the 1.9 TDI engine (77 kW), according to Green Car Congress.

 

Fuel consumption figures for the Golf / Golf plus 1.9 TDI with the 7-speed DSG are 0.7 liters per 100 km lower than they are with the 6-speed DSG. In the Golf hatchback, compared with the six-speed manual version, the new seven-speed DSG brings a 10 g/km CO2 saving (down from 149 g/km in the manual to 139) and a fuel consumption improvement of 0.4 liters per 100 km (from a combined 6.3 l/100km for the manual to 5.9 l/100km for the 7-speed DSG—about 40 mpg US).

 

The new 7-speed automatic transmission is the first DSG for front-traverse installation. It is also the first with a dry sump. This not only saves considerable weight and improves the efficiency of the system but also makes the new gearbox more compact. The maximum torque that can be transmitted is up to 250 Nm.