C7 Corvette could get a dual-clutch transmission

Late last Friday after the local union officials got to hear the details about the new GM-UAW contract details started emerging about future product plans. It looks like part of the cost for the company to get the union to make some concessions was to commit new products to a bunch of plants. At first we only heard about the assembly plants with the news that the Volt would be produced in Detroit and the small RWD Alpha platform would go to Lordstown OH. Now more of the contract is coming out including commitments to parts plants.

Of interest to Corvette fans is a line item for the Toledo OH transmission plant which reads "RWD DCT for NG Corvette will be allocated (2012)". DCT typically refers to dual clutch transmission. That means the C7 'Vette will almost surely get a DCT. Another product for Toledo and the Baltimore transmission plant is the RWD Gen II Hybrid transmission for 2011/12. This could be an updated, and hopefully lower cost version, of the Two-Mode that could be applied to other applications. Hmmm... do I hear hybrid Zetas? One plant that isn't getting new product is the Livonia, MI engine plant that produces the Northstar V-8s used in Cadillacs when that engine dies in 2010. GM announced a new V-8 engine earlier this year that would be built at the Tonawanda, NY engine plant and the Livonia plant will close.

[Source: GM Inside News]