The automaker stated that it must adapt to the General Safety Regulation (GSR), which will apply to all newly registered trucks from July 1, 2024. and automated transmissions. As a result, these trends will mean the end of manual gearboxes in truck equipment. This will also affect the offer of the Tatra Phoenix model range, which represents the main pillar of Tatra Trucks’ production for the civilian market,” the automaker said.
Tatra Trucks Commercial Director Daniel Otáhal stated that after July 1, 2024, the car manufacturer will no longer offer manually operated transmissions for the Tatra Phoenix Euro 6 model series of heavy trucks. “By the end of this year and in the first half of next year, our customers will have the last the possibility to order Tatra Phoenix cars with manual transmissions from us,” said Otáhal.
According to Tatra, modern automated or fully automatic transmissions have a number of advantages. They increase the reliability and safety of cars and the comfort of drivers, reduce operating costs, are more efficient than manual transmissions especially in difficult terrain, are also often lighter in design and have a positive effect on emissions.
Photo: Lukáš Kukla
This is what the drive mode selector looks like on the Tatra Phoenix 8×8 with automatic transmission.
Tatra Trucks produces serial trucks as well as custom-made special cars. It produces cars and chassis for the civil sector as well as for use in the army or in emergency services. It has over 1,400 employees, and more than 700 more people work in the subsidiary Tatra Metalurgie. Tatra Trucks belongs to the Czechoslovak Group of the billionaire Michal Strnad, another of its shareholders is the Promet Group of René Matera. Last year, the car company achieved sales of 7.12 billion crowns, delivered 1,326 cars to customers.
We tested the Phoenix model already with a modern automatic in the Garage editorial office this year. My colleague Honza Majurník wrote about the 390 kW (530 hp) variant, which is connected to a fully automatic Allison seven-stroke, so it actually represents the best powertrain available for the Phoenix series.
Don’t be fooled by performance, which doesn’t play such a role in trucks, as the torque (force) transmitted to the wheels is much more important. The tested “phoenix” boasts up to 2500 Nm sent to all four axles, so it has plenty of energy.
Photo: Lukáš Kukla
After all, we tried it ourselves at the Tatra test site, where we first headed to the inner circuit and roared it up to an electronically limited 85 km/h. You could see how the temperature of the operating fluids rose with increasing circuits and the behavior of the transmission changed – when cold, the changes in quality were noticeable, but after warming up, the automatic shifted with the ease of a violin virtuoso’s notes.
And from the middle of next year, it won’t work any other way than with an automatic…
