Ford Rejects 9 Speed Transmission Co-Developed With GM

Back in April of 2013, GM and Ford announced that they’d be working together to develop nine and 10-speed automatic transmissions. And while the 10-speed has made it into both companies’ rear-wheel drive products, the nine-speed will remain only a GM offering, Automotive News reports.

According to the news site, the deal was for Ford to take point on developing the rear-drive 10-speed, and GM to focus on the front-drive nine-speed. This way, both companies could save money; It would be “two new transmissions for the price of one,” as Automotive News puts it. But now it appears that Ford isn’t going to use GM’s nine-speed; at least, not without significant modifications.
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TomM - 4/23/2018 4:56:17 PM

+1 Boost

Unless the ultimate overdrive gear ratios are changed - there would likely not be a major difference between an 8speed to a 9speed. Yes - you can narrow the rev range that the car will be using with an extra gear - but it remains if it makes any difference depending on the engine efficiency range - and if the engines are not optimized to the tranmissions (Which is what is likely here for the 9 speed) they cannot get any more efficiency.

Today - Transmissions and engines are co-developed (At least the gear ratios are) so that they take advantage of the most economical Rev Range of the engine. The closer the rev range - the more speeds are needed to maintain efficiency - and still offer reasonable performance. Engines CAN be produced with those characteristics - but if YOU have NOT done that - the extra speeds have little benefit. Clearly FORD has not re-engineered its engines to take advantage of the9 speeds while GM is coming out with a completely NEW set of engines designed with the 9 speed in place.

MrEE - 4/23/2018 7:53:33 PM

+1 Boost

Except the article references GM models where the change from 6 to 9 speed made basically no MPG gains.

TomM - 4/25/2018 7:00:12 AM

+2 Boost

AS I pointed out - these result are with OLD engines that are basically not optimized with the 9 speed. THe new set of engines - which will be introduced starting with the New Cadillac CT4 - will show improved efficiency because of the 9 speed and other changes.

MDarringer - 4/23/2018 8:28:21 PM

0 Boost

The FCA 9-speed transmission is no real joy. The models that use it don't get otherworldly MPG. I honestly think for small 4 cylinder engines, 9 cogs may be too many.

vdiv - 4/23/2018 9:06:33 PM

-2 Boost

They are doing it wrong. All that's needed to increase efficiency is a fixed gear reduction with an electric motor. :)

MDarringer - 4/24/2018 10:45:45 PM

0 Boost

Indeed FCA may not build the transmission, but the controller is definitely theirs...hence

TomM - 4/25/2018 7:24:38 AM

+2 Boost

Colecole - Actually FCA DOES build the FCA/ZF 9 speed along with the RWD 8 speed in two plants in Indiana - their licensing agreement was for that option. There may be some use of ZF built transmissions in Europe - or in European FCA cars sold here - but for the most part - the transmissions are built here.

The 8 speed RWD transmission has been on the market for a while - and the initial problems have been addressed to that it is actually very reliable. However - each PURCHASER of the transmission CAN develop its own control software for the transmissions - resulting in different performance depending on that software.

While the 9 speed FWD is not as old as the 8 speed - CHrysler does use a proprietary Transmission Control that is jointly developed - in order to address the different engines in use. But it is produced by ZF Electronics currently - although FCA does have an option to produce it themselves as well.

THe newest Honda 10 speed FWD transmission is a complete about face for Honda - which in the past used a regular gear set-up instead of Planetary gear sets. In transmissions with this number of gears - the "nesting" of a planetary gearset allows enough space to develop a transmission that can have 10 speed - still be compact and light - yet still handle the torque required. Being new to their production - I would not be the one who would want a first year produced transmission of this type.

AS Cars are required to have reduced weight - manufacturers have engineered some components to just satisfy normal requirements - often allowing little for unusual circumstances. One of the areas this has happened is in the cooling of Automatic transmission Fluid - and as noted - the Last Honda Automatic did indeed have cooling problems - which reduced its reliability. Earlier Mitsubishi Automatic Transmission and Very Early Hyundai Transmission also had this problem - which the addition of an external Automatic Transmission cooler overcame. OFten - these come with TOWING packages as well. I have highly recommended them in the past. I also note that today - there are far more different transmission Fluids than there were in the past - and especially now - it is important to make sure you get the correct fluid - there is NO Universal Fluid that will work in all automatics. Since these new Fluids have different levels of Friction modification - use of the wrong fluid CAN INDEED effect shift feel.