http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1509&ncid=1505&e=4&u=/afp/20040419/tc_afp/us_auto_collaboration_040419210545
Story about Ford and GM collaborating on this expensive transmission project. Allegedly, part of the rationale for this project is a 4% or so mileage improvement. Ok, so that's probably only a portion of the reason, and the fact is that good transmission technology is important to the long term excellence of a car (IMO). But this story just seemed a bit odd to me, not only for the collaboration (a sign of a belt-tightening in Detroit?) but also for the mileage rationale, and the amounts of money spent, allegedly, in part, to get modest mileage improvements. Surely they realize that a 4% mileage improvement is a very modest gain compared to improvements that could be also gotten in other areas, such as regen braking, better diesel technology, battery propulsion in BEVs and PIHEVs? GM, Ford announce next phase of joint transmission project DETROIT, United States (AFP) - General Motors Corp. and the Ford Motor Company said they plan to make 720 million dollars in capital investments to manufacture a jointly developed transmission in a first-of-its-kind partnership. The two largest US automakers, and arch-rivals, tentatively agreed to collaborate on the six-speed transmission in October 2002. It is expected to go into production in 2006. GM will spend 350 million dollars to upgrade its Warren, Michigan, plant to make the transmission. The Ford Motor Co. has earmarked 370 million dollars to outfit two plants in Michigan and Ohio for the same purpose. The automakers said the new 6-speed will be used in front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive passenger cars and sport-utility vehicles, and should offer up to four-percent improvement in fuel economy over traditional 4-speed automatic transmissions, the automakers said. By collaborating on the development process, the companies have saved millions of dollars and shaved several months off the time needed to bring it to market, according to a GM spokesman, who put the engineering cost of the project at about one billion dollars. The automakers insisted that the "feel and performance" of their respective vehicles would still be distinct "because the transmissions will be mated to different engines." "We are rivals, but on this technology it really makes sense to work together," said Dave Szczupak, vice president of Ford's Powertrain Operations. Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
