Ford and GM join forces to create new 9- and 10-speed transmissions

The two quintessential American manufacturers, GM and Ford, have signed a collaboration agreement to produce a new range of automatic gearboxes for their new models, such as SUVs, crossovers and pick-ups.

The collaboration between these two giants is not new: years ago they already worked together on the development of a group of 6-speed automatic gearboxes that were fitted to rear-wheel-drive cars.

Thanks to this cooperation agreement, development, testing and commercialisation times will be noticeably shortened, which will probably translate into greater profits for these two giants of the automotive industry.

These gearboxes will have 9 and 10 speeds and, unlike the previous ones developed jointly, they will be able to fit any type of powertrain, whether front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. Although no official data exists yet, these new transmissions are expected to bring better performance to the vehicles that fit them and, above all, a very notable reduction in consumption.

Although 9 speeds may seem like a lot, it is not such an outlandish figure considering that the German gearbox manufacturer ZF has already developed one for Range Rover and Jaguar. However, the 10-speed gearbox already seems to go beyond the limits of logic, especially since the chief executive of ZF stated some time ago that the limit for automatic gearboxes was set at 9 speeds, citing increased consumption and the risk of failures in transmissions with more ratios.

Via | Worldcarfans