[dZired]

Mod Note: Our Kwid AMT Report has been taken live at this link. Please continue the discussion over on the new thread. Thanks!

Renault India has officially teased the Kwid AMT, before its imminent official launch. The Kwid will be getting an Automated Manual Transmission with the 1.0-litre engine. It was earlier displayed at the 2016 Auto Expo in Greater Noida.

The Kwid 1.0 was launched in India in August 2016. It is powered by a 1.0-litre, three-cylinder petrol engine that churns out 67 BHP @ 5,500 rpm and 91 Nm of torque at 4,250 rpm. It is currently offered with a 5-speed manual gearbox. With the new launch, the same engine will now also be offered with a 5-speed Easy-R AMT gearbox.

Unlike other automakers like Maruti Suzuki and Tata who provide a conventional gear lever with their AMT models, Renault will only be providing a gear selector knob with the Kwid AMT. It will be placed at the bottom right of the centre console, near the power window control buttons. This knob has three selections: Reverse, Neutral and Drive. The lack of a gear lever means that the Kwid AMT doesn’t provide the option to shift gears manually.

Various reports suggest that the Kwid AMT will be launched in India in the second week of November.

Link to Team-BHP News

[RavenAvi]

Spotted at a Renault dealership in Bangalore by Overdrive spies.

[croupier]

Wow!! That gear selector knob is dangerously close to the AC control knob. Does any one know of an other vehicle with such a set up.

[hybridpetrol]

Interesting! The gear selector knob that is mounted on the centre console also frees up much needed space in the front seats. Now the driver & passenger need not be elbowing each other during the drive.
Question: While parking, are we completely dependent on the hand brake? Is there no "P" mode?

[Rajeevraj]

Looking forward to this. In spite of the so called 'AT' Revolution, below 5L the only choices are the Nano and Alto. A relative was almost finalized on the Nano, but was not convinced considering the low power/torque numbers. Did not like the Alto K10 also. This may be a good choice.

Hope it is priced at a reasonable ~30K premium over the Manual. That would put the OTR below 5L in most places.

Concerned about the lack of a sports or manual mode. Leaves the driver completely at the mercy of the AT box. No 3,2, L kind of modes also as seen in typical TC or CVT boxes. I assume with a 1.0L engine it should do fine for most usecases . But definitely disconcerting.

[Swarit19]

This is fantastic news! Just in the right time as well. Finally it becomes the close to perfect city car that it couldn't be without the AMT box in a traffic ingested city.

The gear selector knob is neatly integrated and looks quite decent freeing up a lot of space like others have mentioned. Being able to change gears manually sometimes would still have been nice tho personally. Curious to see how the december sales will look like overall now.

[Rajeevraj]

ET Auto says the launch is on Nov 7th with deliveries to begin soon after.

The new variant of the car, is going to be launched on November 7 and on the same day bookings will also begin. The car, which has already reached to some dealerships, will certainly enhance the number of buyers for the car.

[ToyotaFan]

Without a manual mode or an L mode am concerned how will this vehicle perform in the mountains. My daughter needs the car for primarily city drives but occasional weekend breaks to Mussoorie or Lansdowne. Would be disappointed if this car fails in that. Her A star AT does the job fine except the severe space crunch that the car has. So can we expect a starting price around 4.4 L for the car. I think that would make it pretty vfm for the equipment on offer.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by hybridpetrol

Question: While parking, are we completely dependent on the hand brake? Is there no "P" mode?

AMTs don't have a park mode, as the MT gearbox it uses doesn't. Best to park in D or R (opposite of slope) with the handbrake engaged.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Hope it is priced at a reasonable ~30K premium over the Manual.

No chance of that happening. Maruti now charges 42 - 47k for the AMT. I'd expect it to be the same with the Kwid (in the ballpark of 50k).

Originally Posted by ToyotaFan

Without a manual mode or an L mode am concerned how will this vehicle perform in the mountains.

In stop & go traffic, an AMT can struggle on steep inclines if it's an average driver behind the wheel. You need to judiciously use the handbrake.

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by croupier

Wow!! That gear selector knob is dangerously close to the AC control knob. Does any one know of an other vehicle with such a set up.

But the size of the selector knob is almost double the size of AC knob. They did that intentionally to avoid confusion even if you are not looking at when changing.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by GTO

No chance of that happening. Maruti now charges 42 - 47k for the AMT. I'd expect it to be the same with the Kwid (in the ballpark of 50k).

The premium for the Duster AMT over the same spec manual is around 60K. With that as a base and considering that the AMT in the Kwid, I assume is a cheaper unit, I was hoping they would keep the premium to 30-35K.

I thought the Maruti premium was more in the 35K range. Just went back and checked and found that when Maruti launched the Celerio AMT the premium was 37-38,000. Now the premium is 47-50,000 (as you have mentioned). So they have actually increased the premium for the AMT. Sneaky.

[RavenAvi]

Just talked to one of my trusted Renault sources and they say that the prices will be:

Rs 4.29 lacs for the Easy-R RxT 1.0 AMT, and
Rs 4.42 lacs for the Easy-R RxT 1.0 (O) AMT,

both ex-showroom.

[JayD]

After driving an AMT car for 15k kms, I feel the tiptronic/manual override is essential for an AMT box. The response time and shift delay in an AMT box is the way off even the slowest 'proper' auto, and gets even more pronounced during hard acceleration.

If in the auto mode, 90% of the times the car shifts to a higher gear while in the middle of overtaking something. While this is not an issue in a Torque convertor/cvt/dsg, the lag of few seconds between shifts, with zero power coming in at that time, can be catastrophic.

Same case before overtaking anything, an AMT is best put in manual, into the appropriate gear before u start going into the next lane. Leaving it to the auto mode , the delay in downshift/kickdown will ensure that more often than not, you will miss the overtaking window.

I don't see a sport mode either on the Kwid. On a powerful Turbo diesel AMT, i wouldn't miss these, but on a tiny petrol with AMT, they are more of a necessity than a luxury.

[RavenAvi]

Clearer pics, courtesy GaadiWaadi.

[hemanth.anand]

I was eagerly waiting for this car's launch. It'll be for complete city usage for my wife and an occasional drive to the western ghats or Nandi hills. Alto K10 AMT, and upcoming tiago AMT is on our Radar.

Absence of the manual mode is a deal breaker as far as I'm concerned. The knob is integrated neatly though. Looks more premium.

Originally Posted by GTO

In stop & go traffic, an AMT can struggle on steep inclines if it's an average driver behind the wheel. You need to judiciously use the handbrake.

This is more of Climbing up a steep incline from standstill. In that case, yes handbrake usage will come in handy.
I'm more curious to know how the car will perform during a steep descent down ghat sections. How can we prevent the vehicle from upshifting in such a scenario?