A while back Ford mentioned that they were working jointly with General Motors to develop new transmissions that would help maximize fuel economy. We know they were working on nine and possibly 10-speed transmissions, and at the time we assumed these would make their way to the truck line.

A recent report on InAutoNews suggests however, that the Mustang GT will be the recipient of this new transmission. In Ford’s quest to improve the fuel economy of their pony car it makes sense to offer such a transmission.

An automatic transmission with this many gears would likely have benefits beyond just better MPGs on the sticker. Being able to split more gear ratios would in theory allow the car to accelerate better by keeping the revs in the sweet spot for longer periods of time without getting into bogging the engine in 1:1 or higher gear ratios until later. If the paddle-shift option were offered owners could also live out their fantasies of shifting gears more than a half dozen times like in a certain movie franchise about street racing.

No word yet on when the new auto trans would hit the streets. We expect it may be offered up as early as 2016, just in time to boost fuel economy for the next big government clamp down. We also don’t know yet which models this transmission would be offered on, GT, EcoBoost, or V6, although the report suggests GT and EcoBoost models only would receive the transmission. That furthers our assumption that the V6 Mustang’s days are numbered. We’ll have to wait to see what Ford says about all of it in the months ahead.