City Cars Get Automatic Transmission from FEV

FEV, an Aachen-based engineering service provider, has recently unveiled a cost-effective and compact dual clutch transmission (DCT) for use in city cars. Called 5DCT130, it offers five speeds and one reverse speed, and is capable of a torque range up to 130 Nm. When developing the transmission, FEV focused on the combination of available high-volume production components to ensure successful series development, including short time-to-market.

In a statement, Professor Stefan Pischinger, President and CEO of FEV Group, explained that the majority of A-segment vehicles nowadays do not feature automatic transmissions, but this technology offers a huge comfort plus since, in rural driving, a number of shift and start events occur. He added that in combination with proven components, the compact concept of their 5DCT130 transmission meets the inpidual demands of the A-segment.

Nowadays, cost-intensive comfort functions and sophisticated technologies are often foregone in A-segment vehicles. Various concepts are offered to enhance shifting comfort also in this vehicle segment.

Dr. Ingo Steinberg, Group Vice President Transmission Systems at FEV, said in a statement that from the perspective of product cost, the automated manual transmission—AMT—has clear benefits compared to a DCT, but due to is design, it offers the disadvantage of rough gear shifts. He added that to address this, they concentrated on comparing the cost benefit with the possible advantage of the softer powershifts provided by the DCT. Simultaneously, the transmission supports fast engine start/stop systems, sailing with the combustion engine turned off, and a park-by-wire function.

In order to compensate the DCT’s disadvantage, FEV decided to re-use high-volume production components in the development of the 5DCT130 dual clutch transmission, which is reliant on off-the-shelf parts for most of its components. Moreover, it fits within the spatial envelope of a narrow transmission for this vehicle segment, given that it only has one output shaft.

The experts at FEV chose a combustion engine-powered pump to realize clutch control and cooling. The solenoids of the compact hydraulic system have been carried-over from the product portfolio of a premier supplier.

Thanks to a well-suited power-on-demand gear actuator in the form of an electro-mechanic off-the-shelf system, it added the advantage of cost-effective launch of the park-by-wire function. Aside from the gear actuator, off-the shelf components in the form of the synchronization assemblies, attached control unit, differential, wet dual clutch, catalog bearings as well as series synchronization have also been employed.