General Motors and Ford Motor Co. have signed an agreement to develop an all-new generation of advanced technology 9- and 10-speed automatic transmissions together for cars, trucks, SUVs, and crossovers according to a joint press release.
The new transmissions will be built in both front-and rear-wheel drive variants, will increase fuel economy and improve vehicle performance overall.
"Engineering teams from GM and Ford have already started initial design work on these new transmissions," said Jim Lanzon, GM vice president of global transmission engineering in the press release. "We expect these new transmissions to raise the standard of technology, performance and quality for our customers while helping drive fuel economy improvements into both companies' future product portfolios."
The collaborative effort allows both companies to develop, engineer, test, design and ultimately deliver these transmissions for new vehicles faster than ever before and for a lower cost.
This is the third time in the last decade that Ford and GM have joined together to create new transmissions. The three collaborative efforts have allowed both companies to deliver over eight million durable 6-speed front-wheel drive transmissions to people all-around the world according to the press release.
"The goal is to keep hardware identical in the Ford and GM transmissions. This will maximize parts commonality and give both companies economy of scale," said Craig Renneker, Ford's Chief Engineer, Transmission & Driveline Component & Pre-Program Engineering. "However, we will each use our own control software to ensure that each transmission is carefully matched to the individual brand-specific vehicle DNA for each company."
Ford uses 6-speed transmissions in some of the most recognizable vehicles around the world including the Ford Fusion sedan, the Escape and Explorer SUVs.
GM uses them in a number of award-winning vehicles like the Chevrolet Malibu, Traverse and Cruze. Each company will manufacture their own transmissions in its own plants with a number of common components according to a company press release.
"With the jointly developed six-speed automatics we have in production today, we've already proven that Ford and GM transmission engineers work extremely well together," said Joe Bakaj, Ford vice president of Powertrain engineering. "Our 6F family of transmissions has exceeded expectations and there is every reason to believe we will have the same success with these all new transmissions."
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