GM, Ford Earmark Plants for 6-Speed

General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. say the investment of $1 billion to engineer and build a jointly developed 6-speed automatic transaxle for front- and all-wheel-drive vehicles will channel into three transmission plants.

The Ford and GM vehicles using the efficient new 6-speed transaxle are due to hit the market in 2006 and beyond.

The pair began working on the transmission in fall 2002 and have announced a $720 billion investment spread over three plants — GM's Warren (MI) Transmission and Ford's Van Dyke Transmission (Sterling Heights, MI) and Sharonville (OH) Transmission operations — that are slated to produce the gearbox or components for it.

The automatic will be mated to higher-displacement engines in SUVs, cars and cross/utility vehicles coming from both companies beginning with the '07 model year.

While neither OEM will divulge volume expectations, GM and Ford estimate each will have annual capacity for 1 million 6-speeds by 2008, including rear-drive, FWD and AWD units combined.

The transmission is expected to provide a 4% improvement in efficiency, as well as greater performance, according to Tom Stephens, GM group vice president-GM Powertrain.