Horse Powertrain: Proving the Internal Combustion Engine Still Has a Future
In an automotive world increasingly fixated on battery electric vehicles, one company is making a bold and data-backed argument that the internal combustion engine (ICE) is far from finished. Horse Powertrain, a joint venture born from the combined engineering heritage of Renault Group and Geely, is investing heavily in making combustion engines cleaner, more efficient, and more relevant than ever — all in the service of reaching net zero faster, not slower.
It's a counterintuitive proposition in today's EV-dominated headlines, but the numbers and the engineering ambition behind Horse Powertrain make a compelling case that dismissing ICE technology prematurely could actually delay the global transition to a sustainable transport system.
The Origins of Horse Powertrain: A Decade in the Making
While Horse Powertrain may appear to be a new name on the automotive landscape, its foundations run considerably deeper. The story begins in 2010, when Chinese automotive giant Geely acquired Volvo from Ford Motor Company. That acquisition brought together two distinct combustion engine development programmes under a single umbrella — and rather than winding either of them down, Geely chose to invest in and grow them.
This was, at the time, a remarkably contrarian stance. The broader industry was pivoting aggressively toward full electrification, with many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) effectively putting their ICE research and development on life support. Geely and Volvo, however, recognised something that others were choosing to overlook: the world would need better combustion engines for decades to come, not just a holding pattern of existing ones.
Horse Powertrain CEO Matias Giannini has spoken candidly about that early vision, crediting the two companies for their foresight. "I commend them for having that vision when many other OEMs were basically saying 'leave it alone, let's just focus on EVs, because EVs are going to accelerate very quickly, combustion engines are going to die and we don't need to do anything there,'" Giannini explained.
Just over a decade after that initial Geely-Volvo union, Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo made his own decisive move. He spun off Renault's ICE programmes into a standalone business — also called Horse — and before long the two organisations joined forces to create Horse Powertrain as it exists today. The resulting entity was initially owned on a 50:50 basis by Geely and Renault, though the ownership structure has since evolved with a 10% stake acquired by Middle Eastern energy giant Saudi Aramco, signalling serious confidence in the company's long-term commercial prospects.
Why ICE Innovation Still Matters in a Net Zero World
The central argument Horse Powertrain makes is one rooted in scale and realism rather than resistance to change. With approximately one billion cars still expected to be powered by internal combustion engines by the end of the 2030s, the question of how clean and efficient those engines are is not an academic one — it has enormous real-world implications for global carbon emissions.
Electrification is undoubtedly an essential part of the net zero puzzle, but the transition is neither instant nor uniform. Infrastructure gaps, affordability barriers, grid capacity constraints, and the sheer volume of existing combustion-powered vehicles on the road mean that ICE engines will remain a dominant force in global mobility for the foreseeable future. In that context, improving their efficiency and reducing their emissions is not a contradiction of net zero ambitions — it is a pragmatic acceleration of them.
Horse Powertrain's approach recognises that every percentage point of improved fuel efficiency and every gram of CO2 reduced from a combustion engine matters, precisely because of how many of those engines are still operating. Cleaner ICE technology today means lower cumulative emissions across an enormous global fleet, buying meaningful time and reducing harm while the broader electrification transition unfolds.
The Engineering Philosophy Behind Horse Powertrain
What sets Horse Powertrain apart from legacy engine divisions at traditional automakers is its singular focus. By operating as a standalone business dedicated exclusively to powertrain development, the company can direct all of its resources, talent, and strategic thinking toward one objective: making combustion engines as good as they can possibly be.
This includes development work on engines that are designed to run on lower-carbon and alternative fuels, hybrid configurations that pair ICE technology with electrification for improved efficiency, and continuous refinement of combustion processes to extract more performance from less fuel. The company draws on decades of engineering expertise from both the Renault and Geely-Volvo lineages, giving it a uniquely broad and deep knowledge base to work from.
The involvement of Saudi Aramco is also worth noting in this context. As one of the world's largest energy companies, Aramco has a significant interest in the continued development and refinement of combustion technology, particularly as it relates to lower-carbon fuels and e-fuels. Its investment in Horse Powertrain reflects an emerging industry consensus that the energy transition will be multi-pathway rather than exclusively electric.
A Realistic Path to Net Zero
Horse Powertrain's message is not one of denial about the future of electric vehicles. Rather, it is an argument for intellectual honesty about the scale and timeline of the energy transition. A truly effective route to net zero transportation must account for the billions of combustion-powered vehicles that will remain in service across the globe throughout the 2030s and beyond.
By continuing to push the boundaries of what an internal combustion engine can achieve — in terms of efficiency, emissions, and compatibility with alternative fuels — Horse Powertrain is making a genuine contribution to decarbonisation that pure EV advocacy alone cannot replicate at the necessary speed or scale.
What Horse Powertrain Means for the Automotive Industry
The emergence of Horse Powertrain as a well-funded, strategically backed independent powertrain developer sends a clear signal to the broader automotive industry: ICE technology deserves continued investment, not managed decline. For automakers navigating the complexities of the energy transition — balancing regulatory pressure, consumer demand, infrastructure realities, and shareholder expectations — having access to a dedicated partner focused on best-in-class combustion engineering is a significant strategic asset.
- Broader fuel flexibility: Engines developed by Horse Powertrain are being designed with compatibility for alternative and lower-carbon fuels in mind, extending their relevance in a decarbonising world.
- Hybrid system integration: By developing ICE technology in tandem with electrification components, Horse Powertrain is helping automakers deploy hybrid solutions that deliver meaningful emissions reductions at lower cost than full BEV transitions.
- Global applicability: In markets where EV infrastructure remains underdeveloped, advanced ICE and hybrid powertrains represent the most viable near-term path to reduced transport emissions.
- Knowledge preservation: Horse Powertrain acts as a custodian of deep combustion engineering expertise that, if lost through premature industry abandonment, would be extremely difficult to reconstruct.
Conclusion: Combustion Is Alive, Relevant, and Evolving
Horse Powertrain represents one of the most thought-provoking developments in the contemporary automotive industry. At a time when the narrative around vehicle powertrains has become dominated by a binary choice between internal combustion and electric, this Renault-Geely venture is making the case that nuance, realism, and continued engineering investment in ICE technology are not obstacles to net zero — they are part of the solution.
With a leadership team that speaks candidly about the realities of the global vehicle fleet, a shareholder base that spans two automotive giants and one of the world's largest energy companies, and an engineering heritage that stretches back well over a decade, Horse Powertrain is uniquely positioned to shape what the combustion engine looks like in a lower-carbon future. Combustion is far from dead. In the hands of Horse Powertrain, it may be entering its most important chapter yet.