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Antonov Signs Cooperation Agreement with Lifan and Landai on TX-6 Transmission

Following previous announcements by Antonov regarding the possible formation of a manufacturing joint venture in China relating to its innovative TX-6 automatic transmission (earlier post), the UK-based transmission specialist has signed a cooperation agreement with Chong Qing Landai Industries and Lifan Industry Group.

The agreement brings Lifan into the engineering program to bring the TX-6 into production. The first step will be to build a TX-6 prototype into two Lifan 620 cars, which is expected to take about six months. Engineering costs will be covered jointly by Antonov and Landai. Once the project has been successfully completed, Lifan will be a preferred customer for the TX-6 and is expected to place an order for the first batch of transmissions to be produced.

COFTEC, a governmental body in the Chongqing province, has played a significant role in bringing the three parties together and will play a further role in governmental support of the projects.

Antonov’s TX-6 gearbox eliminates the traditional torque converter in a planetary transmission, thereby bringing the efficiency of an automatic gearbox much closer to that of a manual transmission. The TX-6 also avoids the high capital investment as well as the cost, complexity and development issues associated with dual-clutch automated manual transmissions.

Antonov’s hybrid combination of planetary gears and parallel transfers of power reduces the mass and size of the gearbox, while improving mechanical efficiency, as well as retaining the virtually seamless gearshifts of an automatic transmission. The TX-6 offers carmakers low development costs and, if required, the ease of introducing it into low-volume production, according to the company. The transmission is protected by worldwide patents.

Currently six-speed automatic transmissions for China are imported by the domestic carmakers.

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