RicerX
Well-Known Member
Lots to unpack here. Wall of text incoming!
Keeping in stride with the "cost-savings refresh" approach Nissan is having to take with their products, they're investing the little R&D money they have into the components in most dire need of attention. Nissan's transmissions, on average, are the worst parts of their vehicles. The new Z's powertrain is also obviously shared with some long-in-the-tooth Infinitis that are not competitive in their respective segments, and one of the major reasons why is the old 7 speed transmissions. Given this VR30DDTT engine that we know is coming in the new Z only appears in the Q50/60, the 9 speed is the most surefire answer to this because it gives the Z a major improvement from its prior generation while also making way to giving a much needed refresh to the Q50/60, which are most likely on their way out with replacements not yet ready for market. A refresh not unlike what the Z is getting would bridge the gap to whatever ends up happening to the Q50/60. The Z can debut the 9 speed and the Q cars will get them later (possibly for MY2023, but still possible for MY2022). If you look back, the 2008 G37 debuted the new drivetrain for the upcoming 2009 370Z, and it debuted with both a new engine and a new 7 speed automatic transmission at the time.
Bottom line - they know they can't come to market with the old 7 speed for the Z. It's ancient at this point, it was never truly spectacular in 2009, and regardless of the Z owner/enthusiast base's passion for having the manual transmission available, the higher take rate will be an automatic transmission model. There's no chance the 7 speed continues on here because no offering for this car can afford to fall on its face.
So who will build the automatic transmission in the Z?
We know a few things:
- The Nissan/Mercedes partnership is dead. This means that at the most the Jatco unit is based heavily on the Mercedes design as the design license Nissan gained from their original teaming agreement is still valid (and it is, no dispute, but the transmission itself is not identical to the Mercedes, more to follow). Now that the agreement is toast, it's likely that Nissan/Jatco has taken some liberties with the design to recoup their initial investment as they're possibly now legally allowed to do so. Yeah, Mercedes-based. No, not Mercedes-built, nor identical to any existing Mercedes offering.
- Jatco has fielded a 9 speed into the 2020+ Frontier and 2020+ Titan.
- Nissan is using 9 speed transmissions from ZF as well, most notably a new 9 speed offering in the Pathfinder/QX60 that will undoubtedly (and hopefully, for Infiniti's sake) spread to other vehicles in the lineup. ZF is a gold standard transmission manufacturer featuring in many top shelf offerings in many segments, from Ram Trucks to BMWs. They are also not strangers to performance-oriented transmissions. It's still a possibility we see a new ZF 9 speed trans in the Z (and if put into the Q50/60, could put Infiniti in the same conversation as their Audi/BMW counterparts that boast 8 speeds from ZF), and we could have something really interesting on our hands. Not the cheapest option from Nissan, but one that would stir the pot in a very positive way.
- The previous 7 speed model in the Titan was based upon the 7 speed we saw in everything else rear-drive-based from Nissan, including the 370Z.
- The maximum torque rating of the new Jatco 9 speed transmission is higher than the outgoing 7 speed. (I can't remember where I put the document that had the specs, but it is higher by as much as 100-150lb-ft or torque or something like that). It is interesting to note that neither the Titan nor the Frontier are making use of the extra overhead (power figures for the 2020+ Titan are unchanged from 2017-2019 when using regular unleaded fuel, and only a modest bump to 400hp/413lb-ft on 93 octane). But a twin turbo Z absolutely would make use of that overhead, especially if they port the Q50/60 Red Sport configuration of the VR30DDTT as we suspect they will. The Q50/60 Red Sport cars make over 100lb-ft torque more from the factory than the outgoing VQ37 engines did. That's no small amount.
- The specs for the Mercedes documentation outline start/stop and park/shift by wire technologies for their 9 speed. Currently, neither the Titan nor Frontier utilize any form of start/stop, but they do make use of the park/shift by wire. While the Titan utilizes a column-mounted shifter, it is not connected to the transmission via cable as it did for 2017-2019 gassers equipped with the 7 speed Jatco. While the baseline architecture/design of the transmission comes from a Mercedes Design, the Jatco unit is not an exact copy.
- When fully deployed into Nissan's FM platform lineup, Nissan will move from manufacturing three different automatic transmissions to manufacturing one. (Delete 7 speed from Titan, 370Z, Q50, Q60, Q70, Armada/QX80 *not yet confirmed MY2022*; Delete 5 speed from Frontier; replace all with 9 speed unit, except departed Q70). This fits Nissan's strategy of consolidation to cut costs and allows better focus on quality control of a single unit.
- The information outlined above regarding size of transmission fits said platforms with minimum, if any tooling costs. The Titan did not undergo a platform change when moving to the 9 speed (same engine, same chassis), the 2022 Frontier is still based on a heavily-massaged 2005 Frontier platform (despite a new VQ V6), and we know the new Z is going to be a heavily-massaged 370Z. The Jatco 9 speed installed into a Z fits this trend, which is why it's so telling that Jatco emphasized the size of the transmission case and how it fits into existing FM vehicles. After seeing the underside of the Z Proto, I'm pretty sure everything down to aftermarket catback exhausts from a 370Z will fit in this one.
- A ZF would be a completely new transmission as the ZF in the Pathfinder is built for a FWD/AWD architecture and Nissan would incur additional expense while not having a solid business case to do so. (A ZF trans being better than a Jatco trans is a wholly different conversation). Keep in mind the highlight feature of the Z is having a manual transmission, so they can get away with an "under the radar" transmission choice for the automatic. If we knew there would only be an automatic, then it's less of a sure thing as a single transmission offering would have to be a cut above average, in which case I would want to push for a ZF trans if I'm king for a day at product development.
- It doesn't make as much business sense to tool a clean-sheet ZF transmission for a platform that is likely on its final generation of being an ICE car (truthfully, the same goes for Q50, Q60, and Titan, which are each very likely to be fully electric should they survive beyond this generation) - a whole new platform will come for the Z that will accommodate full electrification should the Z live on past this generation, and it will have a whole new set of drivetrain needs that any current transmission built by Nissan will not meet.
Grabbing my popcorn for the 17th.
