Ford, GM to partner in transmission design, development

[JBsZ06]

Ford, GM to partner in transmission design, development


By Richard Truett
Automotive News / October 10, 2002

Ford Motor Co. and General Motors will jointly design and develop a six-speed automatic transmission. The gearbox will be used in large front-wheel-drive cars and sport-utilities.

Production could begin as early as 2005.

The Ford-GM transmission collaboration - a first between the two rival automakers - will:



Save each company millions of dollars in development costs.


Allow the automakers to bring the six-speed transmission to market faster than if each company worked to develop it.


Deliver fuel savings between 4 percent and 8 percent compared with today's four-speed automatic transmissions.

Details of the deal were revealed Thursday by Thomas Stephens, group vice president of GM Powertrain and Dave Szczupak, vice president of Powertrain Operations for Ford Motor Co.

Stephens said that Ford and GM engineers will work together to design, develop and validate the transmission, but that each company will build the gearbox in its own factories.

Szczupak said GM approached Ford in January about collaborating on the transmission. Both automakers already had started designing six-speed automatics, but Stephens said GM's design was chosen because it was further along than Ford's.

Despite the common architecture and internal parts, Ford and GM transmissions will not be interchangeable, nor will consumers be able to take their GM vehicles to Ford dealers for transmission service or vice versa.

"Even though we are using the same base, each transmission will have a distinctive feel and performance because it will be used in different vehicles and with different engines," Stephens said.

The transmission, both automakers said, will be used in high-volume product lines aimed at North American drivers. It will have all-wheel-drive capability.

Szczupak said lawyers for both companies believe the two auto giants are not violating antitrust laws by co-developing the transmission.

[JBsZ06]

Pretty cool that they are working together..