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Market trends clearly demonstrate the ongoing worldwide acceptance and success of modern automatic transmission solutions (AT, CVT, DCT) in both passenger cars and light trucks. This success is based on the further development of the driving comfort, shifting dynamics and - most important - the fuel consumption reduction modern automatic transmission systems offer. First, key driveline parameters such as overall spread and number of ratio's are to be discussed. The optimum spread for the fuel efficiency is in the range of about 8 to 9 and can typically be achieved by 8 to 10-speed transmissions. This is because modern gasoline or diesel-engines have a rather flat characteristic fuel map. Therefore the inner efficiency of the future transmissions becomes increasingly important.

The legislative and market pressure for CO2 reduction and fuel efficient powertrains lead to a variety of automatic transmission concepts in recent years. The CVT technology, the dual clutch technology (DCT) and optimized architectures of torque converter / planetary gear based automatic transmissions (AT), such as 6, 7, and 8 speed ATs entered the market in the last decade. Also different hybrid technologies have entered the market offering further improvement for fuel consumption especially in city driving. Helpful for OEMs and suppliers to flexibly meet market demands proofed the use of modular hybrid solutions. Clear demand to meet were packages of existing vehicles and powertrains with AT and hybrid transmission (HT), e.g. the modular transmission kit based on the ZF 8 speed AT. Hybrid technology is offering fuel efficiency benefits, but there are also reasons for a slow market penetration.