Clutchless Manual Transmission (IMT) in India.
Yes, you read the title right. Recently Hyundai launched a new type of transmission called IMT stands for intelligent manual transmission in its compact SUV Hyundai Venue which has a manual gear shifter without a clutch! Kia is also offering the same transmission system in the newly launched Kia Sonet as it is a part of the Hyundai-Kia group.
I know as a car enthusiast you have a doubt how it works right? So basically in the IMT, it is similar to the manual transmission but instead of a manual clutch paddle there is an electric clutch with is also intelligent enough to understand when you are shifting the gear. So how about starting the car on the 5th gear? Well, it doesn’t work like that because the car only takes off while in 1st or 2nd gear. So if you try to start running the car above 2nd gear it won’t pull and give you the warnings to shift down.
Oh! I forget to mention the same point which is there in your mind. Why IMT? We have fully automatic transmission for the comfortable and easy driving in city. We have fully manual transmission which most of the car enthusiast like to bring out the top perfomance from the engine with revving the engine above red line. Well IMT includes both of these. In automatic transmission the up shift takes place once the revv matches to the red line. But in IMT you can revv it till maximum revs to feel the power of the engine. Also in city where you need to shift gear frequently, you don’t need to press clutch so it is easy and comfortable to shift gears. So give a rest to your left leg.
Two other major factors are price and mileage. If we see the price difference between manual tansmission and automatic transmission with the same features in venue itself is approximately 1.5 lacs where the differences between manual and IMT is only 20 thousands! Other one is a mileage. So automatic transmission provides mileage somewhat 3 to 5 kmpl less than the manual one but there is no difference in the mileages between IMT and manual as both are operated manually.
With all these flashy benefits Hyundai launched this in India and I really like this. But let’s see how much success it can achieve. But yeah I am hooting for it!
