LOUISVILLE, KY. A new transmission option from Allison Transmission will provide fuel efficiency in stop-and-go operation while maximizing fuel economy under cruising speeds, the company said.
The new transmission is being showcased this week at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville. The design uses Allison’s torque converter and twin countershafts, making it ideal for distribution applications which run a split duty cycle in city and highway conditions, the company said.
“Initial in-vehicle demonstration tests have allowed us to document some very nice gains in fuel economy and we achieved increases in a vehicle’s miles-per-workday,” according to Lou Gilbert, Allison Transmission’s director of North American market development. “Our testing has shown this new transmission offers better fuel economy than an automated manual in the targeted duty cycle markets for which it was developed.”
Production is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2012.
The transmission uses full-power shifts for the stop-and-go operation while utilizing a 10-spread-countershaft architecture to offer fuel economy while at cruising speeds.
Allison has a demonstration vehicle for customer test drives at Mid-America this week.
