Powershift from Ford: the best combination of a manual and an automatic gearbox

Automatic gearboxes never enjoyed a dominant acceptance in Spain, where we have grown used to driving manual gearboxes in most of the models on the market. These reasons have been deeply rooted in our motoring culture for years, based on certain arguments that have always been put forward: higher price, higher consumption, slower response in sporty driving (although they were not designed for that) and higher maintenance costs.

Ford offers the Powershift gearbox, a combination of the best of the automatic gearbox and the best of the manual gearbox, a new automatic or manual sequential transmission. The Powershift gearbox is available exclusively on the new Ford Focus and Mondeo, paired with the 136 hp Duratorq 2.0 engine. It is therefore over-engineered to transmit the 320 Nm (340 Nm at most, when the temporary torque increase is activated).

And what are the benefits of this gearbox? It has neither a torque converter, nor continuously variable transmissions, nor any of the usual mechanisms of an automatic gearbox, which are responsible for internal power losses and a certain sluggishness of response. Therefore, in terms of responsiveness and consumption, it has all the advantages of the manual gearbox from which it is directly derived. Gear changes are faster than in an automatic gearbox, and also faster than the gear changes that the vast majority of customers are able to make with their manual gearboxes.

It also has the particularity that in automatic mode, the precise electronic control of the gearbox ensures that each shift takes place at the optimum moment, depending on the throttle response, and with the lowest possible consumption and emissions. This allows the gearbox to be homologated with a very small increase in consumption, ranging between 0.1 and 0.2 litres over that of the 6-speed manual gearbox. In practice, however, the vast majority of drivers, who do not shift as quickly, nor surely at the most suitable moment, will record higher consumption with the manual gearbox than with the Powershift.

For those who enjoy sporty driving, besides being perfectly possible, it will be more within reach of most customers than with a manual gearbox, with faster gear changes, without the engine losing thrust, and without it suffering the speed variations associated with a manual gear change.

If you still have doubts that once you drive with an automatic gearbox in everyday driving, through everyday traffic, you no longer want to change to a car with a manual, the Powershift will surely be a very interesting option of an automatic transmission, but one that is based on a manual.

Source | Media Ford