The number of European motorists who choose a vehicle with automatic transmission is growing.
The number of European motorists who choose a vehicle with automatic transmission is growing.
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The robotic gearbox has more and more appeal. This is what emerges from a study conducted by Ford that reveals that more and more motorists in Europe are oriented in the purchase choice towards automatic transmission vehicles. In the past three years alone, the number of Ford cars and commercial vehicles purchased with automatic transmission has more than tripled from 10.4% in 2017 to 31.3% in January 2020.
Among the many advantages of automatic transmissions there is that they allow drivers to enjoy the latest driver assistance technologies, making everything simpler and more comfortable, from parking to driving in traffic. This trend is expected to continue in the future as electric vehicles (increasingly promoted and popular) also have automatic transmissions. The trend is partly driven by the growing number of motorists who choose small and medium-sized cars equipped with automatic transmission.
The Ford models that are most chosen with this transmission include Focus: 30.9% of the models sold in Europe in January were with automatic transmission (7% in 2017). Even Fiesta and Puma can now be equipped with an automatic transmission that offers fuel consumption improvements of up to 15% compared to the outgoing Fiesta model. Similarly, when it comes to commercial vehicles, 31% of Ford vehicles sold in January were chosen with automatic transmissions, compared to 13.4% in 2017. In the same month 19% of the Transit models sold were equipped with automatic transmission compared to 4.7% of models in 2017.