GM and Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp (SAIC) have a healthy partnership in China, with their recent joint venture (with Wuling) to create a new car brand called Bao Jun (treasured horse). Furthering their partnership, the two have announced their plans of co-developing powertrains and dual clutch transmissions for small vehicles.
They will be concentrating on small displacement engines with direct injection and turbo charging technology, ranging from 1.0 litres to 1.5 litres. Both companies will use the engines in their respective brands in China and the rest of the world. Work will be carried out consecutively by engineers in Detroit and the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) joint venture in Shanghai.
The new transmission on the other hand, will be for front wheel drive vehicles (the common engine/driveline layout for compact cars) and will feature dual dry clutch technology. This will allow improvements in fuel economy and performance with reduced CO2 emissions – when both the engine and transmission are combined, it is said to provide up to 20% improvement in fuel consumption compared to other transmissions manufactured in China.
“These development agreements open an exciting new chapter in the partnership between SAIC and GM. Not only will they add critical green technologies to our next-generation vehicles, they will also build on the strong engineering capabilities forged as a part of GM and SAIC’s corporate responsibility,” said Hu Maoyuan, Chairman of SAIC.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Does this mean they will eventually ditch the EO1 Petronas’ engine?
Small capacity engine with turbo and dual clutch. I guess this is the future for dino fuel engines.
Looks like big engines are going the way of horses.
This is the best way to gain better and faster technology by sharing & develope each other as they have experience…
china, 3rd nation to send rockets and men into space, they could be the next top world car manufacturer and exporter
not just gaining higher technology but also reduce the cost of development for both side.
they r just following the wat VW did after seeing the brand new soon-launching polo housing the 1.2L turbocharged and DSG gearbox..but i guess its good for the future where dual clutch transmission will be affordable and replace the use of current auto-transmission for every commercial vehicle.