The new agreement marks the third time in the past decade that GM and Ford have collaborated on transmissions. The original collaboration served as a template for the new one, officials said. As before, each company will manufacture its own transmissions in its own plants with many common components.
In this combo made with file photos, logos for General Motors and Ford are shown.DETROIT- General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. jointly announced an agreement Monday to jointly develop an all-new generation of advanced 9- and 10-speed automatic transmissions.
Officials said the collaboration enables the crosstown rivals 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.
The new agreement marks the third time in the past decade that GM and Ford have collaborated on transmissions. The original collaboration served as a template for the new one, officials said. 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,” said Craig Renneker, Ford’s chief engineer for transmission and driveline component and pre-program engineering. “This will maximize parts commonality and give both companies economy of scale.”
Each company will use its own control software to ensure that each transmission is carefully matched to the individual brand-specific vehicle DNA for each company.
Initial design and engineering work is already under way for the transmissions, which will be used for cars, crossovers, SUVs and trucks. Neither company gave exact details of what vehicles.
The partnership is most likely an effort to ensure other rival automakers, such as Chrysler Group LLC, don’t get too far ahead with advanced transmissions. The Auburn Hills-based automaker has already announced eight- and nine-speed transmissions, while GM and Ford remained with six-speed transmissions.
“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,” said Jim Lanzon, GM vice president of global transmission engineering.
Vehicles with six-speed transmissions developed by both automakers include Ford's Fusion, Edge, Escape and Explorer. GM vehicles include the Chevrolet Malibu, Traverse, Equinox and Cruze.