50,000 cars with the Auto Manual Transmission (AMT) or Auto Gear Shift (AGS) have been sold by Maruti Suzuki. The feature was introduced first at the Delhi Auto Expo in 2014 and AGS was first seen on the Maruti Celerio and is now offered with the Alto K10 as well.
Automatic cars have been made quite accessible as a result of the AMT technology in budget cars and many manufacturers have picked this up as well. Some of the other cars that are available with AMT and labeled as “budget cars” include the likes of the Tata Nano, Fiat Abarth 595, Tata Zest and the Mahindra TUV 300.
The Auto Gear Shift operates with the help of an electric hydraulic actuator that performs the clutch and shift operations automatically. This allows the driver to get the most out of the car, which means that it has the efficiency of manual transmission as well as the comfort that an automatic transmission offers. Customers too have shown quite a favourable response to this as more than 25 per cent of the Celerio and Alto K10 combined sales are with the AMT variant.
Maruti has always been an innovator but has lost out in recent years with its slew of cars. This is one of the features that set it apart today and it will look to build on these lines to further consolidate its position in the Indian markets.
