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Sales, demand of Automatic Transmission cars on the rise, Ford Fiesta AT to trigger shift

The recently launched Ford Fiesta Automatic seems to be taking the car market in India by storm. Reason is obvious; rising number of women drivers, high mileage, comparative pricing and rising number of people who hate clutching and shifting gears when the traffic in the cities is getting dense and denser day by day. But the question is can the Fiesta AT be crowned to trigger this change? Enthused with the launch of Fiesta AT, Ford India chief Michael Boneham has reportedly said that the day is not far when there will be a Ford Figo AT on roads. This indicates that in the next few years, car companies could focus on launching the automatic version of their cars as well.  

Automatic transmission cars were rare in the past years and there were very few takers, perhaps only a handful of them. Then, there were very few options as well. Gradually, the number of offerings increased and with it increased the preference for automatic transmission cars in India. Though 95 percent of the market is that of manual transmission cars, still the 5 percent is significant enough and car makers see a rise in this segment in the coming years. The reason to believe is perhaps due to the increase in number of women drivers apart from better technology in AT cars. The latest avatar being the Fiesta AT that delivers an exceptional mileage of 16.97 kmpl.  

Significantly, Michael Boneham optimism about the fate of AT cars in India is not a publicity stunt. A recent survey has revealed that there has been a surge in demand for automatic transmission cars in India. Notably, Toyota's Fortuner AT sells in better numbers compared to the time when it only had the MT version in place. On the other hand Maruti’s AT cars viz Maruti A-Star AT, Maruti Dzire AT and Maruti SX4 AT have witnessed a rise in 50 percent sales compared to last year. The Honda City AT variant sales have gone up and reached to 14% currently.