Thomas Stephens (front right), General Motors vice chairman of global product operations, and Chen Hong, president of Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp, shake hands during the signing ceremony of "Global Next Generation Advanced Powertrain Technology Codevelopment" yesterday in Shanghai.

GENERAL Motors Co and SAIC Motor Corp Ltd announced yesterday joint development of new technologies to raise fuel efficiency, and driving their tie-up higher.

The two companies will jointly design and produce a family of new small-displacement gasoline engines and an advanced transmission, pushing their partnership into powertrain development which is another key step in providing propulsion solutions to build vehicles.

"The co-development of these technologies builds on a strong history of innovation and collaboration between GM and SAIC Motor, and shows our vision of future transport," said Tom Stephens, GM's vice chairman of global product operations.

The new small gasoline engine, which will be offered in displacements from 1.0 liter to 1.5 liters, will be a core part of the future vehicle market globally.

"The agreements have opened an exciting new chapter in the partnership between SAIC and GM," said Hu Maoyuan, SAIC Motor's chairman. "Not only will they add critical green technologies to our next-generation vehicles, they will also build on the strong engineering capabilities forged as part of GM's and SAIC's corporate responsibility."

The new front-wheel-drive transmission will have the latest innovation and improve fuel efficiency by 10 percent over today's conventional six-speed automatic transmissions. The engine and the transmission are estimated to slash gasoline consumption by 20 percent and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent, compared with engines and automatic transmissions in China currently.