Last November the CEO of transmission systems company ZF stated that 9-speed gearboxes are the normal upper limit.
“It’s not a rule, but the question is whether extra relationships offer something substantial,” commented Stefan Sommer. Last March, Land Rover presented in Geneva the first automatic 9-speed automatic transmission in a passenger car, the result of the collaboration with ZF.
Ford and General Motors have decided to… take the next step, as they have announced that they will jointly develop 9 and 10-speed automatic transmissions.
Two of Detroit’s Big Three have teamed up twice in the past decade in the same field before, creating 6-speed transmissions for front-wheel drive models.
As before, this time Ford and General Motors will each manufacture the transmission systems in their own factories.