GM And Ford Get In Gear Together
Developing cars and pieces thereof is getting increasingly costly, and that’s why even the fiercest rivals band together to share the mounting financial burden. GM and cross-town rival Ford agreed to jointly develop a new line of nine- and ten-speed automatic transmissions , Reuters says.
GM and Ford will build both FWD and RWD variants. The gaggle of gears is one way to cope with the U.S. government mandate that by 2025, automakers should sport a corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) of 54.5 miles per gallon (23.2 km per liter). According to Reuters, “that translates to about 39 mpg in real world driving, or nearly two thirds higher than the average fuel economy for the 2012 model year vehicles.”
The new transmissions are expected to reach the market beginning in 2016. According to the New York Times, the joint effort can save “hundreds of millions of dollars and considerable development time.” What’s more, “it also saves the cost of licensing the design and production rights from a specialist transmission supplier like ZF of Germany or Aisin of Japan, which can cost up to $100 per unit.” When bought in not insignificant quantities, of course.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Thank you for article. Now I know why electric cars have 90% fewer moving parts.
This discussion brings back memory of my '63 Buick LeSabre with the 'variable pitch Dynaflow'---never ever feeling a 'shift'----and wonder if the 400 Cu inch engine-power had anything to do with that!
The CVT that Ford uses in the Escape Hybrid used a planetary gearset instead of belts from what I understand. We have 3 of them as work vehicles, and between the 3 of them they have over 750k on them with no issues and no service as they are unserviceable. Not sure why they don't just use that similar setup for all CVT's in the future.
I should have bought that DAF Daffodil..........