Indians are increasingly buying cars with automatic transmissions despite the price tag rising by anywhere between ₹60,000 to ₹2 lakh compared to the manual versions, according to an Economic Times report, which attributed the rise in demand for such transmissions to their ease of use, especially as the top Indian cities face heavy traffic congestion.
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Automatic transmissions now account for 26% of mass-market vehicle sales in India compared to 16% in 2020, according to the report which cited data from Jato Dynamics and added that in the top 20 cities, one out of three cars sold are now automatic.
Currently there are 83 car models in the Indian market with automatic transmission options from manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Toyota, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai and Kia who are also expanding their automatic offerings.
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“Almost 60% of our cars sold are CVT (automatic) variants as the CVT transmission is not restricted to top variants but is available in lower variants of all models as well,” the report quoted Kunal Behl, vice president, marketing and sales, at Honda Cars India as saying.
Honda’s India lineup includes the Elevate, City, City e:HEV and Amaze.
Another side to the story is that a lot of carmakers are importing most of their automatic gearboxes, according to the report, which added that this contributes to higher costs and slows down automatic transmission adoption, though some manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra have localised production.