Leftlane reported in April that General Motors planned to invest a total of $890 million into its engine and transmission plants to update tooling and equipment, with one expected benefactor to be the Bedford, Indiana, transmission plant.
Today, GM has revealed the specifics of the investment, which totals $49 million and helps to preserve or create 91 jobs at the facility. The money will be going towards the purchase of new equipment and tooling that will be used to produce a new eight-speed automatic transmission and a future small engine program.
“The all-new 8-speed transmission will improve fuel economy in a number of future vehicles,” said GM manufacturing manager Arvin Jones. “And, the new gasoline engine, which will be offered in displacements from 1.0-liter to 1.5-liters, is key to fuel economy leadership in the small four-cylinder engine segment.”
GM is being fairly vague in its announcement regarding the transmission, but it seems likely that the transmission will be destined only for small cars and paired to the new small displacement engines also announced. GM has not specified when production of the transmissions will begin.
The Bedford, Indiana, powertrain plant currently has 405 hourly and salaried employees.
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