Ford and General Motors have signed an agreement to jointly develop a new generation of 9- and 10-speed automatic transmission designed for cars, crossovers, SUVs, and trucks.
The transmissions will be built in both front- and rear-wheel-drive variants and are expected to increase fuel efficiency and performance. “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.
By sharing the design and engineering tasks, both companies are able to save time and money during the development process than if they both worked independently. Although the engineering will be shared, each company will develop their own software to control the transmission’s operations.
This new venture marks the third time in the last decade Ford and GM have worked together on transmission projects. The previous project put over 8 million six-speed front-wheel-drive transmissions into vehicles such as the Ford Fusion, Edge, Escape and Explorer; along with the Chevrolet Malibu, Traverse, Equinox, and Cruze.
