Dexos licences will pay for $50m development programme
General Motors is expecting development of its Dexos engine oil specification to be funded by licencees to the tune of $50m.
According to Lube Report's Nancy DeMarco, the $1,000/year, five-year licence fees, along with graduated blending royalties, will be set towards a testing programme costing between $35-40m, with a further $13m required for other development work for the OEM's specification.
Dexos specs for gasoline and passenger car diesel engines will apply to both factory and service fill for all GM cars and will be mandatory by 2011. GM Powertrain's Eric R. Johnson stated that current engine tests will no longer be valid by 2014 and, with Dexos specifications differing from GF-5 and API CJ-4, the automaker is looking at between five and seven engine tests within the next four years.
These would include Sequence III and IV test for wear and valvetrain wear, Sequence VID for fuel economy as well as sludge and varnish tests. In addition to the test programme, further costs will come from specification development, test maintenance, and education and monitoring programmes - in all, an additional $13m.
Johnson believes that OEM specifications provide a faster, non-regionalised and more flexible solution than industry-driven specifications, removing the need for compromise and allowing faster development.
