新科技: 科技让开车更简单_BEC初级作文

新科技: 科技让开车更简单

Shift Into Ninth Gear

九速变速箱

Ever-tougher federal demands for fuel efficiency have led car makers to add more gears to transmissions. And more. And more.

美国政府对汽车燃油经济性日益严格的要求迫使汽车制造商增加变速箱档位。没有最多，只有更多。

You don't have to be very old to remember when most cars came with four-speed transmissions. Now, Chrysler Group LLC says it will introduce a nine-speed gearbox designed to fit into a relatively small, front-wheel-drive car.

即便不是年纪很大的人也能回忆起大多数汽车都采用四速变速箱的时代。现在，克莱斯勒集团(Chrysler Group LLC)称其将推出一款九速变速箱，用于尺寸相对较小的前轮驱动汽车。

ZF Friedrichshafen AG, the German company that makes the nine-speed transmission, says it can improve fuel economy by 10% to 16% compared with a six-speed automatic, mainly because it offers a wider spread of gears to keep the engine in the 'sweet spot,' where it's turning as slowly as possible to stay at a certain speed.

九速变速箱制造商德国采埃孚股份公司(ZF Friedrichshafen AG)表示，与六速自动变速箱相比，九速变速箱能提高燃油经济性10%到16%，主要是由于其齿轮组传递范围更广泛，能在特定的发动机转速下延缓切档，保持引擎处于“最有效点”。

Such a transmission's challenge lies largely in the software that controls the vehicle's shifting. Too much and drivers could feel as if the car is constantly changing gear and not running smoothly. Too little and the fuel-economy benefits don't materialize.