GM, Ford to collaborate on new transmissions




By TOM KRISHER
The Associated Press
DETROIT —
General Motors and Ford are putting aside their longstanding rivalry to work together to develop a new generation of fuel-efficient automatic transmissions.

The companies said Monday that their engineers will jointly design nine- and 10-speed transmissions that will go into many of their new cars and trucks.

When transmissions have more gears, engines don't have to work as hard. That saves fuel. As long as the shifting is smooth, most customers don't give much thought to their transmissions.

The fierce rivals, which rank first and second in U.S. auto sales, say they'll save millions of dollars that can be spent on areas that set them apart from other automakers such as quieter rides and nicer interiors.
Neither would estimate exactly how much they'll save, but each said transmissions cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop. The more gears a transmission has, the more complex and costly it is to develop and build.

"While we still can be really competitive, we can collaborate where it makes sense," said General Motors Co. spokesman Dan Flores. "We will still fight every day in the marketplace over every sale."

The savings also will help the companies keep their prices competitive. Neither would say when the new transmissions will show up in cars and trucks, although design work already has begun. A previous venture to jointly design six-speed transmissions took about three years.

The companies will manufacture transmissions separately. They'll likely order parts from the same companies, saving millions more dollars, said David Petrovski, an analyst for IHS Automotive who specializes in transmission forecasting.

Generally, transmissions with more gears are more efficient because they allow engines to do less work to keep cars and trucks moving, while still having the power needed for acceleration. The maximum number of gears that Ford and GM transmissions now have is six.

Industry analysts say if engineered correctly, a nine-speed automatic transmission can raise gas mileage five to 10 percent over a six-speed model. For a Chevrolet Cruze compact, for instance, that would equal at least 2 mpg above the current estimate of 38 on the highway.

Currently, Ford and GM are behind in the transmission speed race. Several other automakers such as Chrysler and Land Rover have nine-speed coming out soon. Many automakers already have eight-speed transmissions on the road. Both GM and Ford said the joint research would help them develop the transmissions faster.

All three Detroit automakers had to cut transmission development when they ran into financial problems back in 2008, said Kevin Riddell, an engine and transmission analyst with LMC Automotive, a Detroit-area forecasting firm.

"The joint development is really going to help them out and get back onto an even playing field," he said.
This isn't unchartered territory for the two Detroit automakers. They began working on six-speed gearboxes in 2002. So far the companies have produced 8 million jointly-developed transmissions.

It's not unusual for automakers to work together on big ticket items such as engines or hybrid gas-electric powertrains, but working together on transmissions is less common, Petrovski said.
The companies don't expect any anti-trust issues to arise even though together they control one-third of the U.S. auto market. Lawyers reviewed the 2002 agreement and the federal government didn't raise any issues with it. A Justice Department spokeswoman wouldn't comment on the new deal.



Copyright The Associated Press < > Thank You!

 

My Employer (Metaldyne) makes trannie parts for both Ford and GM (this should be interesting)

 

Hi `Tadd,
I hope it really works `out...& that `if they put their heads 2gether they might come out with a decent super multi-speeds transmission

"Two heads are better then one " ? or are they ?

v

 

Will it be a Gord tranie ???

 

Maybe a G-Mord > Trans 12 speed (?)
@ 60 MPH the RPM would `be (100) WoW
@ 200 MPH the RPM would only be (2K) WoW We's

A Engine would last over One Million + miles

 

I think that it is good that GM and Ford work together like this. In the past when pretty much America had car companies competing against eachother this would have been such a crazy idea. Now since we have become a global market and the number of foriegn cars sold in the US keeps going up we need to get our own car companies to put their heads together so they can produce a better automobile than other countries. To mee it seems like the American car companies were too busy competing with each other in the last like 10-15 years that the foriegn car makers were able to get an edge in it. Just my opinion. Honestly I'm more of a Pontiac and Chevy guy over a Ford guy but Ford would be what I would go to 2nd.

 

Instead of wasting money developing transmissions why don't they go with companies that already have em made like Chrysler and a lot of others are doing?

 

Hi `Mike, you should email Ford & GM & advise them...Maybe they didn't think of that ?
===========================================
GM, Ford To Collaborate On Advanced 10-Speed Transmission

Posted: Apr 15th 2013 at 8:30AM by Adam Morath
1

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Two of Detroit's "Big 3" automakers announced on Monday an agreement to jointly develop new 9- and 10-speed automatic transmissions. General Motors and Ford Motor Company will collaborate on advanced transmissions that will be used on both front and rear-wheel drive vehicles across both automakers' lineups, including trucks and SUVs.
While these crosstown rivals typically enter the ring as competitors, this is not the first time the automakers have employed the tag-team method when developing transmissions. Ford and GM have collaborated on transmissions 3 times over the past decade, most recently working conjointly on the 6-speed automatic transmission shown above.

The new transmissions are expected to yield gains in both fuel economy and performance, as is typically the case with gearboxes that offer more ratios.

"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 for transmission, driveline component and 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."

GM's VP of Global Transmission Engineering Jim Lanzon added, "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 new 9- and 10-speed transmissions will help Ford and GM catch up on the competition, many of whom are already offering 8- or 9-speed automatic transmissions in their vehicles. GM recently announced an 8-speed transmission on their forthcoming 2014 Cadillac CTS.

You can read the full press release below.

GM and Ford to Jointly Develop Advanced Automatic Transmissions
2013-04-15

DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. have signed an agreement under which both companies will jointly develop an all-new generation of advanced technology 9- and 10-speed automatic transmissions for cars, crossovers, SUVs and trucks.

The new transmissions, to be built in both front- and rear-wheel drive variants, will improve vehicle performance and increase fuel economy.

The collaboration enables both automakers to design, develop, engineer, test, validate and deliver these new transmissions for their vehicles faster and at lower cost than if each company worked independently.

"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. "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."

A Track Record of Success

This new agreement marks the third time in the past decade that GM and Ford have collaborated on transmissions. These collaborative efforts have enabled both companies together to deliver more than 8 million durable, high-quality 6-speed front-wheel drive transmissions to customers around the globe.

Ford installs these 6-speed transmissions in some of America's favorite vehicles, such as the Ford Fusion family sedan, the Edge crossover and the Escape and Explorer SUVs, while GM installs them into a variety of high volume, award-winning products like the Chevrolet Malibu, Chevrolet Traverse, Chevrolet Equinox and Chevrolet Cruze.

These original collaborations served as a template for the new one. As before, each company will manufacture its own transmissions in its own plants with many common components.

"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."

"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."

"This agreement provides tremendous benefits for both companies, and it will pay big dividends for our customers and shareholders," added Lanzon. "By jointly sharing the development of these two new families of transmissions, both GM and Ford will be able to more efficiently use our respective manpower resources to develop additional future advanced transmissions and bring them to market faster than if we worked alone."

Further technical details and vehicle applications for these transmissions will be released by each company at the appropriate time before launch.





Filed under: Cadillac, Ford, GM, Future

 

They should first collaborate on making a decent diesel engine that doesn't fail at 70K miles.

 

Cummings supplies the diesel engines to a lot of the car manufactures.

Metaldyne also supplies Cummings

Allison does make a lot of the trannies also