Volkswagen working on 10-speed DSG AT gearbox

It wasn't too long ago that something as
premium as a Honda CR-V had a four-
speed automatic gearbox. The Maruti
Suzuki A-Star and Hyundai i10 still offer
four-speed 'boxes. However, in the search
for better performance and lower
emissions, the automatic gearbox has been
adding more and more speeds for a while.
First off the block was Mercedes with its 7-
Gtronic, which, as its name suggests, is a
seven-speed automatic. Lexus responded
with the world's first eight-speed 'box. That
has now become the default choice in
premium cars thanks to ZF's eight-speed
automatic. ZF said that it would be highly
unlikely that we'd see any more speeds,
because their gearbox was already very
close to ideal efficiency with a decent
balance of performance and minimal
losses.
But the recent updates suggest otherwise.
Land Rover debuted their new nine-speed
AT last month, while Merc will offer a
similar setup with the all-new S-Class in
May. GM and Ford have announced that
they are together working on both nine-
speed and ten-speed transmissions to
power their front-wheel-drive and rear-
wheel-drive cars respectively.
And now Volkswagen has announced that
they are developing a new 10-speed dual-
clutch DSG automatic that will drive variety
of cars of the group companies. The head
of Volkswagen group, Dr Martin
Winterkornm, also confirmed that the VW is
also working on new high-performance
diesel engine as part of its target to bring
down CO2 emissions of their lineup to 95g/
km by 2020.