Mercedes-Benz is developing a 9-speed auto gearbox

That’s right, you read it correctly – Mercedes-Benz are apparently working on a new gearbox that is said to offer nine different forward gears.

It is currently under development and headed for upcoming Mercedes-Benz transmission tunnels. The gearbox is said to be mated mainly to larger cars and engines in the Mercedes-Benz range.

Mercedes-Benz claim using nine speeds dramatically improves fuel economy as the engine power and torque is spread more evenly rather than the engine pulling longer gears.

It is quite a bewildering amount of ratios to fathom, is it too many? Mercedes-Benz has said nine is the maximum number of cogs physically capable of fitting inside a passenger vehicle gearbox though, so there’s a sign of limits ahead.