GM, Ford team up to develop new generation of fuel-efficient automatic transmissions

GM, Ford team up to develop new generation of fuel-efficient automatic transmissionsAfter having signed a memorandum of understanding in September 2012, rivals General Motors (GM) and Ford have now announced that they are teaming up for developing a new generation of fuel-efficient automatic transmissions. The announcement implies that it will be for the third time in the past one decade that the two bigwig automakers will be collaborating on new transmissions.

According to the announcement made by GM and Ford, the companies' collaboration for new transmissions will essentially involve the joint efforts of their engineers for designing 9- and 10-speed transmissions which will go into a number of their new cars and trucks.

The benefit of designing the mentioned new transmissions is apparent in the fact that the more the gears of transmissions, the less is the work required to be done by the engine. In other words, transmissions with more gears result in fuel-saving for the drivers.

In fact, the collaborated effort to develop a new generation of fuel-efficient automatic transmissions will also bring along saving of millions of dollars for the two automakers; thus leaving them with some extra cash to be spent on some other areas - like attractive interiors and quieter rides - which give them a leading edge over rivals set them apart from other automakers such as.

With transmissions costing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, GM spokesman Dan Flores said about his company's collaboration with Ford: "While we still can be really competitive, we can collaborate where it makes sense."