Transmission system for motorcar

All internal combustion engine vehicles are equipped with a mechanical component known interchangeably as a gearbox or transmission. The internal combustion engine, whatever its type, cannot propel the vehicle on its own.

We therefore prefer to speak of GMP (Groupe Moto-Propulsion), the mechanical entity which groups together the engine and transmission, and which largely determines the vehicle's performance, noise and fuel consumption...

If we look specifically at transmissions, we should first point out that there are many different types, virtually all dating back to the origins of the automobile, but it would probably be impossible, and indeed of little interest, to detail them all.

In this article, we restrict ourselves to the technical description of three concepts that are relatively close "cousins" in terms of architecture: the manual gearbox, the automated manual gearbox and the dual-clutch automatic gearbox. As a prelude, we'd like to give you a few points to help you better understand the context in which the global transmissions market is evolving.

Automatic transmissions with inverters and continuously-variable transmissions are covered in a separate article at [BM 2 587] , which also offers a few points of comparison between the different types of transmission in terms of performance.