Drive Technology New Horsepower

Related Vendors

FAULHABER Drive Systems

Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders' Association (TMBA)

Wuxi InfiMotion Technology Co., Ltd.

Evolution or revolution—much is happening in the drive sector. This ranges from detailed improvements to individual engine components to new drive architectures and business models.

The trend toward more electric drives has already prompted some OEMs to scale back or outsource their development activities for combustion engines. Horse Powertrain is one such new company that emerged from the engine activities of Renault, Geely, and Volvo—including a stake held by the Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco. Horse aims to act as an external and neutral partner to develop and produce hybrid drives or combustion engines for OEMs, thereby freeing them up to focus on the development of battery-electric drives.

For this business model, a new hybrid drive was presented in 2025, featuring a 0.48 gallons four-cylinder combustion engine as its centerpiece, delivering 80 kilowatts of power and 127 lb-ft of torque. It is coupled with an electric motor (50 kilowatts, 156 lb-ft) that draws its energy from a lithium-ion battery with an energy capacity of 1.4 kilowatt-hours. The transmission and power electronics have also been integrated into the overall solution from the beginning, making the drive unit very compact. According to Horse, a technical highlight of the drive is the combustion engine, which operates on the Atkinson cycle, is compatible with common flex-fuel blends containing up to ten percent ethanol, and already meets the Euro 7 emission standard. CEO Matias Giannini stated that Horse designed the hybrid drive "as a global solution" to cover many markets and vehicle segments.

Hybridization With Range Extender

Horse takes it a step further with the concept of a separate range extender, which could hybridize battery-electric vehicles as an add-on. The drive, presented at Auto Shanghai, consists of a combustion engine, electric motor, transmission, flanged drive shafts, and complete electronics. According to Horse CEO Matias Giannini, the compact unit, thanks to comprehensive integration, is "25 percent narrower and 20 percent more cost-effective than previous solutions." He stated that it can be installed on the front axle of electric vehicles without requiring significant modifications to their architecture.

This would enable an electric all-wheel drive, as well as a type of "hybrid drive" with the combustion engine acting as a generator and range extender. The concept is also intended to serve as a replacement for a conventional gasoline or diesel engine in a combustion platform. The combustion engine operates with pre-chamber ignition and can run on various fuels such as E85, ethanol, methanol, and synthetic fuels. According to Horse, the first vehicles featuring the Future Hybrid Concept are expected to hit the roads in 2028.

Fully Electric Skateboard Chassis

Mercedes-Benz will introduce the new MMA architecture in 2025, which is set to debut in series production with the new entry-level CLA model. The MMA architecture is a so-called skateboard chassis, on which various body variants can be built. The 800-volt architecture enables a charging capacity of 320 kilowatts or up to 186 miles of range in just ten minutes. It is planned that the charging unit will later also support bidirectional charging.

The permanently excited synchronous motor (PSM) with a silicon carbide inverter on the rear axle delivers up to 200 kilowatts of power and transfers its force to the rear wheels via a two-speed transmission. Optionally, an additional PSM electric motor with 80 kilowatts can be installed on the front axle, primarily activated during acceleration and, for efficiency purposes, can also be disengaged using a clutch. These structural efficiency measures, an optional recuperation power of up to 200 kilowatts down to coasting, as well as sophisticated operating modes, are designed to reduce energy consumption to around twelve kilowatt-hours per 62 miles.

The battery features new cell chemistries and a cell-to-pack design. In the base version with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, it offers an energy capacity of 58 kilowatt-hours. The top version with NMC technology holds 85 kilowatt-hours and has an energy density of 680 watt-hours per liter. According to Mercedes-Benz, this is approximately 20 percent better compared to the previous generation, while the costs at the battery level have decreased by 30 percent.

Evolution Instead of Revolution at VW

Volkswagen has reduced the energy consumption of its APP310 electric drive (PSM with 229 lb-ft of torque, series launch in 2020) not through a generational change but through refinement measures. Since the new APP350 evolution stage is to be produced on the same line as the APP310 variant, new windings for the electric motor or a new cooling system were ruled out. Instead, the focus was on detailed optimizations.

For example, by switching from silicon IGBT semiconductors (efficiency 94 to 97%) to SiC MOSFETs (efficiency 97 to 99%) from Bosch, which have lower losses and thus reduced cooling requirements. Another measure involves using variable switching frequencies in pulse width modulation (PWM), in addition to continuous switching frequencies, depending on speed and load conditions, as well as alternative modulation methods like block operation and no-zero-pointer modulation.

Additionally, Volkswagen has reduced the sheet thicknesses in the stator, thereby decreasing core losses caused by the changing magnetic fields. Furthermore, the wiring configuration of the stator winding was switched from a star connection to a delta connection, and the number of parallel branches was halved to improve efficiency at customer-relevant operating points.

25 Miles more Range

Volkswagen also identified savings potential in oil quality, now using a particularly low-friction oil. It halves viscosity in typical operating temperature ranges, enabling up to 7.5 miles more range.

Through these measures, VW engineers were able to improve the efficiency of the APP350 drive compared to its predecessor APP310 in many operating map areas (primarily the operationally relevant ones), in some cases by up to ten percent. As a result, the new drive saves around 36 percent energy in the ID 4 reference vehicle during the WLTP cycle. This increases the range of the electric vehicle by up to 25 miles. Additionally, operating noise has been significantly reduced through design improvements to the rotor and new software functions.

Future-Proof Authentication with Universal RFID Readers

Universal RFID Readers: One Solution for All Credentials