« Energy Biosciences Institute Funds First 49 Research Projects on Cellulosic Biofuels | Main | Baltic Sea Ice At Lowest Levels Since Measurements Began »
Ford To More Than Double 6-Speed Automatics In New Vehicles By End of 2009
7 May 2008
Ford Motor Company plans to more than double the number—to 1.4 million—of more fuel-efficient, 6-speed automatic transmissions in its North American cars and trucks by the end of 2009. By the end of 2012, 98% of Ford’s North American automatic transmissions will be advanced 6-speed gearboxes.
The 6-speed transmissions provide customers 4 to 6 percent improved fuel economy compared with typical 4- and 5-speed gearboxes, as well as better acceleration and a quieter and more refined driving experience.
Advanced six-speed automatic transmissions are an important element in our sustainability strategy to improve fuel economy for our customers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in our new vehicles by 2020.
—Barb Samardzich, vice president, Ford North America Powertrain Operations
Ford’s newest 6-speed is the 6F35, which debuts in the 2009 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner sport-utility crossover vehicles and replaces the current 4-speed. It also will be used in the 2009 Mazda Tribute, as well as two other vehicles early next year.
For 2009, the Escape and Mariner receive more powerful engines, but even with that improved power, they also increase their fuel economy by 1 mpg due to the new 6F35.
Key to the new 6-speed transmissions is increased gear span compared with 4- and 5-speeds. This allows vehicle powertrains to operate at a more optimum level, depending on the particular driving situation.
For example, a higher first gear delivers more torque when accelerating from a stop while the deeper overdrive gear enables a vehicle’s engine to use less energy at highway cruising speeds, which saves gas. In addition, with two more gears, a 6-speed transmission allows the engine to operate at its optimum efficiency, for a greater period of time, further boosting fuel economy.
—Phil Yuhasz, engineering director, Transmission and Driveline Engineering
The 6F35 is produced at Ford’s Van Dyke Transmission Plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., and will double the plant’s production capacity to 1.3 million units annually. Van Dyke also assembles the 6F50 front-wheel-drive transmission. Last year, 221,000 6F50 transmissions were produced for the Ford Taurus, Ford Taurus X, Ford Edge, Mercury Sable and Lincoln MKX.
This year, 6F50 application expands to the new 2009 Ford Flex and Lincoln MKS. Available with SelectShift in the Lincoln MKS, the automatic transmission also allows manual gear selection for an engaging and sporty driving experience.
Ford 6-speed gear ratios also play a key role in the company’s new PowerShift dual-clutch transmission. (Earlier post.) Currently used in the new European Ford Focus and Ford C-Max, PowerShift combines the ease and permanent motion of a conventional 6-speed automatic transmission with the performance of a manual transmission.
The Van Dyke plant will serve as the company’s global center of excellence for 6-speed front-wheel-drive transmissions, and the Livonia (Mich.) Transmission Plant will assume the same role for rear-wheel-drive versions.
Livonia’s new 6R80 transmission helped power 154,000 SUVs last year, including the Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer, Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator.
The third center of excellence for Ford’s 6-speed manufacturing is its Sharonville (Ohio) Transmission Plant, which produces gears and other transmission parts for the Livonia and Van Dyke facilities.
A total investment of $658 million in the three plants was announced last year, primarily for new flexible equipment to produce advanced 6-speed transmissions.
May 7, 2008 in Transmissions | Permalink | Comments (18) | TrackBack (0)
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/22062/28837166
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Ford To More Than Double 6-Speed Automatics In New Vehicles By End of 2009:
Comments
Well, if the Prius didn't send the message about the advantage of electrical transmissions perhaps the Chevy VOLT will.
T2
Posted by: T2 | May 7, 2008 4:31:46 AM
The Hybrid Tahoe/Yukon also has an "electrical" transmission.
Posted by: NCyder | May 7, 2008 5:43:31 AM
"Well, if the Prius didn't send the message about the advantage of electrical transmissions perhaps the Chevy VOLT will."
T2, and what is the Escape, Chopped Chicken Liver?
Did you see on the web the other day talk of a like type project within Ford?
Change is coming. 1st you have to change the culture which is huge within a large organization. Ask those that are in the Ford organization IT IS happening. 2nd you are missing the fact they are emulating the so much vaulted Toyota, i.e. Continuous Incremental Improvement. The 500 design changes in the Taurus, the 3 mpg tweaking in the Focus, This Transmission, and the upcoming Eco-Boost Engines which they claim will give 2 to 5 mpg improvement depending upon the application.
Look we all want Elec-Drive, but for a Cash Strapped (i.e. Capital is a precious resource to be spent wisely in their turn around) Company, give them some breathing room. By the way, look at the total capital expenditure to make this happen.
Posted by: EGeek | May 7, 2008 6:52:37 AM
Basially, there is nothing wrong with trying to extend the life of a dying species.
Will some of those efforts be useful for the next electrified vehicle generation?
Posted by: Harvey D | May 7, 2008 7:51:19 AM
Dual clutch tranny for the Europe Focus??? I feel betrayed by Ford. They need to bring such goodies to the US market...
Posted by: Patrick | May 7, 2008 8:18:45 AM
3% here and 4% there, before long they will have a pretty efficient platform. With the 6 speed transmissions, DI, turbo, small displacement, electric power steering, electric AC and getting things off the belt in general, they will have a car that can be hybrid or not, but still get pretty good mileage and not cost a bundle doing it.
Posted by: SJC | May 7, 2008 9:22:03 AM
SJC - "3% here and 4% there, before long they will have a pretty efficient platform. With the 6 speed transmissions, DI, turbo, small displacement, electric power steering, electric AC and getting things off the belt in general, they will have a car that can be hybrid or not, but still get pretty good mileage and not cost a bundle doing it."
However this will start removing the price diffential between simplified plug in hybrids and extremely complex IC cars.
If you listen to this article on EVWORLD
http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1442
This is almost exactly what Dr. Andrew Frank of the University of California at Davis is saying. As IC cars get more and more complicated and PHEVS get simpler and simpler then a PHEVs will be almost the same cost.
Simplifying a PHEV involves downsizing the engine, lowering the weight and optimising the battery pack for the consumers needs.
Posted by: | May 7, 2008 4:36:46 PM
Sorry I realised that this article is behind a paywall - here is a quote from it.
"For Dr. Frank, who has spent some 30 years pioneering the plug-in (charge depletion) hybrid concept, the key to closing the Grand Canyon-sized cost gap between today's hybrids and plug-in hybrids with their significantly larger battery packs is system simplification, as well as engine downsizing. He cites the example of EDI's patented Continuously Variable Transmission, which he and his UC Davis mechanical engineering students developed over the course of years of competing first in the US Department of Energy's "FutureCar" program, and then its follow-on "FutureTruck" program and then GM's Challenge X competition.
He explained that the average four-speed automatic transmission consists of some 2,000 parts; and now with the advent of six and eight-speed transmissions developed to improve fuel economy, the complexity and part count continues to climb. By contrast, EDI's CVT consists of only 60 parts, making it both less expensive to manufacture and conceivably more reliable.
He would apply the same strategy to downs-sizing the engine. Since the electric motor and batteries in a charge-depleting hybrid do all the work, the internal combustion engine needs to only be sized to power the generator that keeps the battery pack charge up. This means a smaller, lighter engine can be installed, again reducing weight and complexity."
Posted by: Ender | May 7, 2008 4:38:19 PM
CVT is the way to go , but even contemporary CVT with 60 components and computer controlled may not be the perfect answer.
More then 80 years ego Romanian inventor George Constantinesco develop inertia transmission. He not only invented simple CVT transmission, he prove that it work as intended by building a car in 1926 that make 100mpg. Considering what was the efficiency of engine in 1926 and now we can probably get much better millage.
Here is the link about the transmission.
http://www.rexresearch.com/constran/1constran.htm
Ford should look in to that invention.
The simple solution is the best not the most complicated.
Posted by: mki | May 7, 2008 7:14:57 PM
It should be noted that when the next-generation Ford Fiesta arrives in the USA it will likely be get the six-speed PowerShift transmission, which combines the performance and efficiency of a manual transmission with the convenience of a regular automatic. That could mean the new Fiesta sedan could likely break the 40 mpg rating for highway driving based on the EPA 2008 test.
Posted by: Raymond | May 7, 2008 8:11:50 PM
Now do a Fiesta hybrid with electric turbo compounding and get 50 mpg.
Posted by: SJC | May 8, 2008 9:09:45 AM
Ford seems to have perfected 6-Speed Transmission and they are going to apply this in all vehicles which is good.
Getting even 3-4 MPG more is definitely good. All they have to do is ensure that their vehicles are trouble-free.
Yes, Toyota, Nissan and Honda are going fully into CVT, but they have worked on this area for long.
Another good initiative from Ford is to convert Explorer from SUV to CUV.
Posted by: Max Reid | May 10, 2008 6:38:20 AM
You better get a long extended warranty on the transmission.. its not going to be cheap to replace or fix..the 6 speed auto transmission that Ford used in the 2006 ford 500 was $1500 to fix, at 37k miles.
Posted by: Herm | May 10, 2008 11:04:49 AM
"For Dr. Frank, who has spent some 30 years pioneering the plug-in (charge depletion) hybrid concept, the key to closing the Grand Canyon-sized cost gap between today's hybrids and plug-in hybrids with their significantly larger battery packs is system simplification, as well as engine downsizing."
That's a fragment.
Posted by: Dan A | May 10, 2008 7:14:43 PM
All the automakers are erecting factories to produce 6 speed dual clutch automated manual transmissions.
GM is doing it, the EU makers are doing it, and even tiny, cash strapped, Chrysler is committed to produce enough 6 speeds auto-manuals in 2009, to power more than half its total output. Taken together with its exsiting CVT capacity, virtually all its autos and most light trucklets will have 6 speed autoamtics, too.
Progress comes incrementally, as well as with innovative breakthroughs such as the battery electric vehicle.
Posted by: stas peterson | May 12, 2008 10:55:45 AM
Ford, Ford, Ford. When will they learn? So, this article says that the 2009 Escapes will have a more efficient transaxle, but a new, larger engine will wipe out the gains made in fuel economy.
Americans (I think) desire more than just power and performance...duh...performance seems to be the only thing that the US automakers seem to care about, however.
Posted by: john | May 12, 2008 5:10:02 PM
Ford, Ford, Ford. When will they learn? So, this article says that the 2009 Escapes will have a more efficient transaxle, but a new, larger engine will wipe out the gains made in fuel economy.
Americans (I think) desire more than just power and performance...duh...performance seems to be the only thing that the US automakers seem to care about, however.
Posted by: john | May 12, 2008 5:20:36 PM
I agree John...They should be making the engine more efficient also.
Posted by: Brian | May 14, 2008 2:37:57 PM
