Honda has reportedly filed a new patent application with the Japan Patent Office for a transmission design incorporating eleven speeds and three clutches.
The application is dated May 27, with the inventor of the apparent triple-clutch gearbox listed as Izumi Masao, but it has only just come to light.
The benefit of adding of a third clutch, according to reports, is that the torque loss that usually occurs in dual-clutch transmissions is reduced.
In the application, Honda also claims that the new transmission will allow speed change to be “more effectively restricted” and “a speed change response to be increased”.
Interestingly, in 2015 Honda revealed a 10-speed transmission for front-wheel drive, front-engine vehicles, although that gearbox is expected to be offered in production form only from 2020.
But, as it stands, there is no indication when this 11-speed, triple-clutch gearbox might become a production reality. Or, indeed, in what sort of vehicle it might debut.
