China’s Dongfeng Motor partners with German transmission producer

China’s Dongfeng Motor Corp. has partnered with German transmission producer Getrag International GmbH, one of the world’s largest independent transmission suppliers for passenger cars and light-duty commercial vehicles, to jointly develop and make transmissions.
The two companies have formed a 50-50 joint venture in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, with a total investment of €120 million (US$155.7 million).
The partnership will have an annual production capacity of 250,000 dual-clutch transmissions in the first stage; that figure is projected to grow to 500,000 units.
The first product from the joint venture will be a low-torque dual-clutch transmission scheduled for production at the end of 2015.
The joint venture will include an R&D center with full development capacity for all kinds of transmissions.
Dongfeng aims to boost sales of its own-brand passenger cars to 1 million units a year by 2016.