Antonov appoints Bernd Ramler as a company director

Antonov, a UK-based automotive innovation company with a broad portfolio of automatic transmission technologies, has announced the appointment of Dipl.-Ing. Bernd Ramler as a non-executive director. The company believes that his knowledge, experience and contacts will be of great value in supporting the successful implementation of its commercial strategy, which will also benefit from €35m of additional finance secured through its main fundraiser. The announcements were made to the company’s shareholders last week.

Mr Ramler has worked for three of the leading companies in the automotive industry in Germany: Daimler-Benz AG, Mercedes-AMG GmbH and Porsche AG, where he headed powertrain and engine activities for street cars and racing cars, as well as supporting racing activities worldwide for all three companies. At Porsche he headed the V10 engine programme for the Carrera GT and helped achieve a double win in the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1998. In 2006 Mr. Ramler left Mercedes-AMG to form his own engineering consultancy with a number of well known automotive companies as clients. Ramler graduated from RWTH (Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule) Aachen University as a certified engineer in 1981.

Antonov recently announced its revised business strategy with a primary focus on the commercialisation of numerous 2-speed applications, which have a shorter time to market; securing commercial engineering projects with both automotive and non-automotive clients using its core competencies and technologies; and continued support of its TX6 6-speed automatic transmission and other products with a longer time to market. The revised strategy places greater emphasis on generating short term revenues in order to reduce the level of ongoing fundraising required to support products with a longer development cycle.

The strategy includes bringing into production the latest innovation of dual-speed drives for engine ancillaries. The novel addition of gearing to alternators and superchargers, to give but two examples, allows them to operate more efficiently. Applied as a dual?pulley unit to give a two?speed belt driven alternator, air?conditioning pump and water pump, the accumulated energy saving can translate into 5 per cent improved fuel economy. Antonov’s purely mechanical self-shifting system also has the major benefit of not requiring external controls, which significantly reduces vehicle integration and calibration costs.


With the experience of low volume units already in production, Antonov is now developing high volume original equipment applications, such as a dual-speed engine mounted pulley. Integrated into an alternator the company’s dual-speed drive provides improved output at the lower engine idle speeds increasingly sought by engine designers to reduce fuel consumption. The Antonov drive can also be adapted to be back driven by the alternator for engine restart and regenerative braking.

The Antonov drive is also ideally suited to electric vehicles. Most electric drives can benefit from a simple two-speed transmission, which allows a lower start ratio for better acceleration and a higher cruise ratio to reduce noise and improve motor performance and efficiency.

To further help bring its products to market, Antonov has agreed two new financing facilities with its largest shareholder Quivest B.V. including €20 million of equity finance that will help accelerate the introduction of its numerous 2-speed applications.

The company has also agreed a €15 million loan facility to help meet the expected costs of a possible joint venture in China for the production of its TX6 automatic transmission. Antonov’s all-new TX6 gearbox provides a technical breakthrough in automatic transmission design, eliminating the traditional torque converter and bringing the efficiency of an automatic gearbox closer to that of a manual transmission.

Current trading activities in China are driven through the company’s office in Chong Qing, where Antonov can already demonstrate a high quality 6-speed prototype vehicle. Antonov’s major innovation for its state-of-the-art electronically controlled six-speed automatic transmission is that it has achieved for the first time a hybrid combination of planetary and transfer gearsets operating in parallel.

Whilst discussions in respect of the TX6 joint venture have not proceeded as fast as originally anticipated, the board remains optimistic that a deal will be signed and has taken this opportunity to secure the majority of the financing expected to be required. Under the terms of the loan facility, Antonov will have the right to draw down the €15 million at any time in the next four years, subject to the signing of a letter of intent with third parties to create the joint venture.

Quivest is an investor based in The Netherlands and has been the main funder behind Antonov, providing over €15 million in the last three years. Quivest is a substantial shareholder in Antonov currently holding 21.49 per cent of the company's issued share capital.

Further information on Antonov technology is available at antonovat.com.