Two companies, one transmission.The collaboration between Ford and GM to build six-speed automatic transmissions for front- and all-wheel-drive vehicles continues to move forward. A total of $720 million will be spent to update three existing transmission facilities--two Ford (in Sterling Heights Sterling Heights, city (1990 pop. 117,810), Macomb co., SE Mich., on the Clinton River; platted 1835 as Jefferson Township, renamed 1838, inc. 1968. Largely rural until the mid-20th cent., the city grew as a suburb of Detroit, 19 mi (31 km) to the northeast. , MI and Sharonville, OH) and one GM (in Warren, MI)--with new equipment, tooling and more room. The plants are expected to launch concurrently in 2006 at which point, the companies expect their investment will exceed $1.0 billion. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "This family of transmissions," says Dave Szczupak, vice president, Ford Powertrain Operations, "exceeds the torque capacity of any transmission we have in production for similar applications today, and will replace many of our current high-torque front- and all-wheel-drive units." Tom Stephens Thomas (Tom) Gregory Stephens (born November 15, 1951) is an Australian politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Parliament of Western Australia since 1982, serving in the Legislative Council from 1982 to 2004, and in the Legislative Assembly since 2005. , group vice president, GM Powertrain GM Powertrain Europe is a company created by General Motors to develop engines and transmission for the GM group. It was known as Fiat-GM Powertrain until the termination of the GM and Fiat merger talks, and earlier as Opel Powertrain. , says the new six-speed is not a Lepelletier design, has "a 6:1 overall gear ratio spread that will increase fuel economy by 4% when compared to a current four-speed automatic," and states the collaboration with Ford "shaved shave v. shaved, shaved or shav·en , shav·ing, shaves v.tr. 1. a. To remove the beard or other body hair from, with a razor or shaver: months" from the transmission's development time. The transmission internals are as common as possible, but vehicle packaging differences have created minor changes in cases, torque converter designs and other internal items between the Ford and GM units. Nevertheless, the new gearbox gear·box n. 1. See transmission. 2. A protective casing for a system of gears. gearbox Noun the metal casing enclosing a set of gears in a motor vehicle Noun 1. will package transversely side-by-side with the engine. Control units are being developed separately, though the solenoids used will be common. Neither Stephens nor Szczupak foresee any problems with this degree of commonality com·mon·al·i·ty n. pl. com·mon·al·i·ties 1. a. The possession, along with another or others, of a certain attribute or set of attributes: a political movement's commonality of purpose. . "The electronics will give us the latitude we need to tune these transmissions very differently," says Szczupak. The first vehicles to use this automatic will appear in the 2007 model year and include cars, SUVs and crossovers.--CAS |
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