Transmissions are Important for Improving Fuel Economy, Too

With news last week of the four-cylinder 2010 Chevrolet Equinox achieving 32 mpg highway in EPA testing - best-in-class for a compact crossover vehicle and 2 mpg better than we expected - I started to reflect a little on all the powertrain systems and technologies that must work together to reach such an impressive number, especially when you consider the Equinox seats 5-passengers comfortably and weighs close to 4,000 lbs. Being a transmissions engineer, I naturally gravitated to the vehicle’s six-speed automatic transmission.

When people talk about fuel economy, they generally focus more on the fuel savings from the engine than anything else. And true, technologies like active fuel management, turbocharging or in the case of the Chevy Equinox, direct injection help to greatly improve a vehicle’s fuel economy.

But what about the part of the powertrain that gets the power to the road - the transmission? Improving fuel efficiency is key to GM’s current and future product plans, and from a transmission standpoint, we are working on a number of technology options to achieve that goal.
One of the most recent advances for our transmission portfolio is the large scale availability of six-speed automatic transmissions across a wide range of GM cars and trucks. Six-speed automatics are available in GM vehicles from small cars to SUVs and pick-up trucks.

In six short years, we’ve developed and launched nine new six-speed automatics for more than 40 rear-wheel, front-wheel and all-wheel drive vehicles. And by the end of the year, we will launch another six-speed variant for a total of 10 new six-speed automatics!

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