Ford and GM to collaborate on transmissions
It appears that the economic hardships are making even fierce rivals come together for a common goal. This is the case in which Ford and General Motors are right now, ready to collaborate on new nine- and 10-speed automatic transmission for their future vehicles.
These next-generation vehicle transmissions will be designed for both front- and rear-wheel-drive applications and most likely they’ll be launched at the middle of this decade – the main goal of the transmissions is to improve performance and to increase vehicle fuel economy.
Now you may be amazed to find out that this is actually the third time that the two massive rivals have partnered up on transmission technology over the past decade – they’ve worked previously on joint six-speed auto gearboxes as well.
According to GM vice president of global transmission engineering, the partnership would allow both parties to design, develop, engineer, test, validate and then deliver the new transmissions faster and at lower costs than if they were to work independently on separate projects.
According to the same official, GM and Ford engineering teams have already started working on initial designs for the new transmissions. The idea behind the joint project being to raise the standard of technology, performance and quality for the two company’s customers while also help to improve fuel economy.
According Ford chief engineer for transmissions and driveline component and pre-program engineering, this collaboration will be like the older ones in which each company will be building their own separate transmissions in their own plants but using many common components.
Even so, each of the newly developed transmissions will be using each company’s own control software so that they match each company’s brand-specific vehicle types.
Further technical details and stats about the potential vehicle applications for their future nine- and 10-speed automatic transmissions will be revealed closer to their introduction into the new models.
