Cracking the code of growth in Automatic car sales

🔍Insights

Vibhavari Madki

Aug 10, 2020 — 6 min read

Historically, people used to prefer manual cars for the feel. And lack of traffic could also be the reason for not adapting automatic cars. But through the passage of time, the manufactures realized that the change in the system is necessary to adapt to the evolving world.

Generally, users prefer things that are convenient and easy to handle. Driving a car is a perfect analogy. With proper training, it’s easier to learn how to drive a car with an automatic transmission. Not only that, it allows people to speak on their phones if urgent, search for music, or look at their GPS all while driving in the driver’s seat (mostly should avoid these things). When you keep on shifting the gears into heavy traffic, that increases the risk of meeting with an accident due to distracted attention. The automatic transmission car helps in decrease of confusion while driving and also reduce the tension. Hence, the growth in sales of Automatic car is tremendous.

History of Automatic Transmission

Users were initially dedicated towards driving the manual car. Even now some of them follow the ancient belief, which were similar in principle to today’s stick-shift vehicles. The first automatic car was invented by a Canadian steam engineer, Alfred Horner Munro in 1921. The technology came along at an exciting time in history as Americans were celebrating the victory of WW2 and building up steam for the post-war boom.

The first automatic transmission design using hydraulic fluid was developed in 1932 by two Brazilian engineers, which was later sold to General Motors. One of the primordial examples of hydraulic fully automatic transmission is the Hydramatic, developed by General Motors in 1932.

The most remarkable improvements in automatic transmission car design till date are the number of forward gears transmissions it currently consists. The switch from mechanically to electronically controlled transmission operations efficiently for the drivers. Mechanically controlled automatic transmissions have reached their limit in terms of future improvements while electronically controlled automatic gearboxes have only touched the surface of the possibilities.

Then the 1948 Oldsmobile was the first model to use a true automatic transmission. By the time of 1950, the automatic transmission was ascended to the North American market and continued to grow in abundance till this day.

Automatic transmission, especially, have some impressive features and capabilities. First of all, they're often quicker for acceleration in comparison to manual. Automatic transmissions are completely in sync with these systems. The systems last longer, shift faster, and do a better job of keeping the vehicle performance up to the mark for the conditions you’re driving in.

The working of Automatic Car

Why should you choose Automatic Car

There are numerous advantages of Automatic transmission cars in the modern world.

The primary advantage of an automatic transmission to the driver is there is no clutch pedal and manual shift pattern like there is in normal driving. This allows the user to drive or manage the car with as few as two limbs, it also allows individuals with disabilities to enjoy driving.

Automatic transmission also reduces the attention and greater effort required inside the cabin, such as monitoring the tachometer and taking a hand off the wheel, allowing the driver to ideally keep both the hands on the wheel at all times and to focus completely more on the road. This gives an experience of driving leisurely and carefully at the same time to the driver.

Control of the car at low speed is lot more easier with an automatic transmission cars. As these cars does not have any clutches,this condition makes the car to move slowly either forward or reverse on its own while in a driving gear called idle creep, even at idle. Because it never really disengages.

The automatic transmission parts of many vehicles have the same or better miles-per-gallon than the manual models.

The younger generations are more into driving a Automatic transmission car, as they tend to learn the most advanced one. There is really no economic reason to choose manual, since automatics are far more widely available. After all, the car dealers wouldn't keep a large stock of manual vehicles if no one is really interested to buy them. Technological advances are made for smoother and affordable driving experience in an automatic.

If you live in a metropolitan cities where engaging in traffic is a casual fact of life, constantly shifting gears to stop and start really gets annoying. Even if you live in a smaller town or city, you would drive shorter trips or halt for multiple stops. Therefore, automatic cars are easier to operate with frequent use.

Growth of automatic sales in India

Automatic transmission cars have become a more dominant segment in recent years. The factor behind the drifting away from manuals is the growing number of women drivers in India, who are majorly comfortable with Automatic transmission. Hence, there’s greater demand for automatic transmission models, which makes up about 25 % to 30% of total sales.

This has led to companies like Renault, Datsun, Hyundai and Tata Motors to follow suit and launch their own Automatic transmission version in their cars.

The percentage sales of automatic transmission in overall car sales has increased from under 5% before 2014 to around 12% today. By 2025, the share of Automatic cars alone in the overall car market is expected to rise to at least 20%.

There is immense growth of Automatic Transmission in India. Maruti Suzuki is committed and working on bringing the best of automatic technology to the Indian market. It has sold over 5 lakh cars with automatic transmissions since 2014.

At Volkswagen, one in every three cars that it sells in India is an Automatic Transmission model.

Volvo Cars operates in the luxury car segment. All of the cars are automatic by default that are sold in India.

At Tata Motors, the automatic car sales goes around 25% of the sales of those models where the automatic transmission option is available.

According to a report, the automatic car sales would take up around 15% of the total sales, which is inclusive of manual cars too.

Some of the best Automatic cars in India are:

Maruti Suzuki Swift AMT, Maruti Suzuki Celerio
Baleno CVT which provides a variety of features for low cost and also decent driving experience.
Glanza CVT which is an Automatic transmission from Toyota.
Hyundai Grand i10 Nios AMT
Hyundai i20 and Honda Jazz
Tata Tiago and Tigor AMTs are both value for money providing driving experience with decent amount of features. Can also wait for Tata Altroz AMT
Ford Figo Ti-VCT AT