SAIC and GM announced on August 18th that they will co-develop a new generation of small displacement environment-friendly engine and transmission and share the intellectual property. This is the first time for national auto companies to develop self-owned core technology. In 3 years, the new engine is likely to launch in Nanjing first.

In 2008, SAIC invested more than 2 billion RMB in Pukou base for capacity expansion. Production capacity of complete vehicle is expanded to 200,000 units and capacity of engine to 250,000 units. This expansion project completed early this year. The new engine to be co-developed ranges from 1L to 1.5L. It is estimated by insiders that, SAIC will centralize production of small displacement engines with self-owned IP in Pukou due to benefit of scale economy.  

As the low-carbon era is coming, all major auto manufacturers in the world have regarded the technology of clean and environment-friendly automobiles as the core competitiveness for the future industrial competition. The co-developed powertrain of SAIC and GM includes compact and light turbo engines with direct injection and matched small-torque dual-clutch transmissions. 

This is the first time that a Chinese auto manufacturer work together with a global giant automobile group to co-develop core technology of powertrain and share its IP worldwide. (Nanjing Daily)