Remember the buzz that was created by the new Maruti Suzuki Celerio recently for raising the bars of small car segment by offering Clutchless transmission system. Automobile technology has evolved so fastly in last few years and has extended the horizon of further advancement to a completely new level. The new Auto Gear Shift or Semi-Automatic or EZ Drive or Automatic Manual Transmission is a perfect example of this evolution that brings together the pros of both automatic and manual transmission in one unit. Let’s try to understand its working in simple terms.
The first question that comes to mind whenever we speak of transmission system is that why exactly do we need these? Whenever your car sprints to higher speed, the speed of your car’s engine starts lagging behind from that of wheels. Transmission system mainly takes responsibility for coordinating speed graph between these two systems. When the driver chooses the gear of his car and shifts it with a clutch, it is known as manual transmission. Clutch basically connects gears with engine, when driver presses clutch aka lever it temporarily disconnects the engine from wheels and brings desired changes in speed of the vehicle. So, when you need higher speed you switch to higher gears and vice versa. The biggest benefits of this system are its simplicity, ease of maintenance, lower costing, and higher fuel efficiency. However, on flip side these are tiresome in stop-go traffics and manly depend over driver’s prowess.
The automatic transmission system works via a torque generator in place of manual clutch. The torque convertor mainly works on a fluids and turbine mechanisms. The change in speed automatically leads to change in gear in this system. It is very easy to operate and less tiring. However, ATs also decrease fuel efficiency of the car and is much more complex to maintain and handle.
So, auto gear shift EZ drive aka Automatic Manual Transmission (AMT) systems are the blend of these two that offers only the best part of both above explained systems. Here, there working is somewhat similar with manual transmission; however, the clutch function is automated. You don’t need to manually use the level here; instead an electronic system identifies the change in gear level and automatically changes gears.
