Geneva Motor Show LIVE: Land Rover’s 9-speed automatic transmission

The British based automaker Jaguar Land Rover has brought the a 9-speed automatic transmission to the 2013 Geneva Motor Show.

Besides unveiling the electric version of the Land Rover, in a concept form for the moment, Jaguar Land Rover has decided bring a 9-speed automatic transmission, to the same Swiss automotive event. This can be translated into an obvious question: “What do the next Mercedes-Benz S-Class generation and the upcoming Land Rover models have in common?” Well, we already provided an answer for that, but for those of you who see cars just like a replacement for the horse, we will tell you that the 9-speed automatic transmission.

A couple of year ago, car manufacturers said that a 9-speed transmission is useless because it can’t improve fuel efficiency or the engine’s performance. But after studying the problem more, the companies have decided to give it a go. JLR has teamed up with transmission specialists at ZF in order to make the new gearbox, which is actually just 6 mm longer (0.23 inches) than the actual one and, believe it or not, 7.5 kg (16.5 pounds) lighter than the outgoing six-speed.
“We are extremely excited about the 9HP which has been tailored exactly to dovetail with the unique attributes of our vehicles. It will add another layer of performance, refinement and efficiency, further enhancing Land Rover’s world class abilities”, said John Edwards, the Land Rover global brand director.

The increased number of gears, in Land Rover’s perspective, will improve the fuel efficiency and it will also help the CO2 emissions. The initial announcement said that Land Rover will fit the new automatic transmission onto the Range Rover Evoque, but in the meantime the company has decided that this was harder than imagined. Additional details on the subject remain limited for the moment but we’re gladly waiting for the future when large trucks will have less gears than modern cars.