Nine and 10-speed autos for GM, Ford

General Motors and Ford have announced they will jointly develop an all-new generation of nine- and 10-speed automatic transmissions, one of which could find its way into Holden’s next-generation 2017 Commodore.

The project will help the Detroit duo cut costs and speed up the design, development, engineering, testing, validation and manufacture of what’s now seen as an essential element in the suite of technologies car-makers are using to cut fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Full details are yet to be announced, but the new transmissions will be produced for front- and rear-wheel drive applications for a wide range of cars, crossovers, SUVs and trucks across a number of size segments.

One of those could be the Commodore that follows the upgraded VF line-up due in June, given the all-new 2017 sedan will be an all-new model employing global GM chassis and powertrain technologies, almost certainly including a front-wheel drive platform.

The plan follows similar moves by German transmission specialist ZF, whose new nine-speed auto is claimed to reduce fuel consumption in North America’s Dodge Dart by about 10 per cent.

The same transmission will be fitted as standard across the new Jeep Cherokee line-up due here later this year, and will become available in Australia’s Range Rover Evoque next January .

Hyundai has also announced it is developing what’s being touted as the world’s first 10-speed automatic transmission for a passenger car, and has promised to deliver it next year.

It is the third time in the past decade that GM and Ford have partnered up on transmission development.

They’ve worked before on a six-speed front-drive transverse unit (pictured) that turned up in eight million cars and SUVs including the Fusion (aka Mondeo), Escape and Explorer from Ford and Cruze, Malibu and Equinox models from Chevrolet.

As was the case then, each company will produce its own versions of each transmission at its own facilities.

“Product differentiation between brands and models will be in software, the aim being to keep hardware identical in the Ford and GM transmissions,” said Craig Renneker, Ford’s Chief Engineer, Transmission & Driveline Component & Pre-Program Engineering.

“This will maximise parts commonality and give both companies economy of scale. 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.”

Jim Lanzon, GM Vice-President of Global Transmission Engineering, said the agreement will pay handsome dividends for customers and shareholders.

“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.

“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,” he said.

As things stand, US makers have to look overseas for such transmissions. While most luxury cars already offer automatic transmissions with seven (Mercedes-Benz) or eight speeds (BMW, Audi, Jaguar), GM sourced its first extra-ratio transmission from Japanese maker Aisin Seiki for the new Cadillac CTS and XTS sedans set for launch in Q3 this year.

The trend to more cogs shows the stepped gearbox evolving to deliver all the benefits of a continuously variable (CVT) systems while retaining its own performance advantage.

Auto transmissions have steadily advanced since the first torque converter incarnations of the 1950s, from two to three speeds in the 1960s and 1970s, to four and five in the 1980s and 1990s, to six in the 2000s and seven and eight more recently.

In an era when high fuel-efficiency and low emissions are paramount, transmission technologies are getting better equipped to cope with more cogs as shift mechanism reflexes and the electronic brains driving them get quicker.

The more cogs they have to work with, the closer the ratios, the broader the spread and the more efficiently they can match engine speed to driver demands and conditions in real time.

Like the latest dual-clutch automated manuals, multi-ratio automatics are a particularly useful adjunct to engine downsizing, helping extract every last bit of twisty goodness from every cubic centimetre.

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