It’s 2025 and not only are hybrids hot, it turns out that the EV demand curve might not be as steep as automakers anticipated. This is a problem for anyone who put all their eggs in an EV platform basket, as reengineering an EV to accept a combustion engine might be prohibitively expensive.
However, where problems exist, solutions can thrive. Horse Powertrain, a joint venture between Chinese automaker Geely and French automaker Renault, has unveiled a hybrid propulsion unit that packages a combustion engine, an electric motor, and a transmission in roughly the same space required for an electric drive unit alone. As Horse explains:
This new powertrain allows automakers to hybridise BEV platforms to meet changing customer demand, as well as eliminating the need for multiple platforms and production lines. The lightweight, modular powertrain fits within existing Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) platforms, and serves as a range extender to the existing battery, with its transmission and driveshafts enabling AWD operation both in EV and parallel modes.
This sounds high-tech, but the new design actually incorporates variations on some rather old ideas. For instance, the oil pan for the four-cylinder engine appears to be combined with the main casting for the transmission, which could be considered a variation of the original Mini’s innovation of placing its gearbox in its oil pan. This configuration keeps the powertrain remarkably narrow, as the transmission now sits under the engine rather than alongside it as you’d normally see in a transverse powertrain.
At the same time, widening the powertrain at its base creates additional crush space between structural components and the engine block, while mounting all the power electronics including the inverter to the powertrain seems like a great improvement in packaging efficiency. Horse claims that this new hybrid powertrain will bolt directly to an EV’s subframe, “requiring only minor modifications.” While space will still need to be found in the vehicle’s structure for a fuel tank and lines, this seems like a great tool for turning EVs into hybrids, including flexibility in how this hybrid system itself operates.
See, not only can it be run as a parallel hybrid, it can also function as a generator in range extender applications. This lets manufacturers play not only with battery pack sizing but charging functionality. Want an 800-volt system to get drivers through their commute, DC fast charging capability, and combustion backup on road trips? No problem. Want a more traditional hybrid drive? You’ve got it.
The only potential roadblocks I see here relate to cooling and exhaust system packaging. Most EVs have pretty small frontal openings, but a new core support and front fascia is cheaper than a whole new platform. However, if this powertrain is up front, routing an exhaust system under the car near a big battery pack might be tight. Perhaps the solution is some sort of side-exit arrangement, but with production of this powertrain set to start in 2028, we should know more soon.
Don’t get me wrong, EVs are great, but there are cases where pure battery electric vehicles don’t offer the same convenience as combustion. Winter DC fast charging can be glacial for apartment-dwellers in cold climates, towing really cuts into EV range, and road trips are generally faster when burning fossil fuels. Hybrids like this are meant to cover that gap for consumers who can’t take the plunge into full-on BEV ownership due to their situations. With major automaker backing, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a variation on this powertrain in production cars sooner rather than later.
Top graphic credit: Horse Powertrain
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Hasn’t Mercedes all but confirmed that this is what’s going to be powering future CLA hybrids?
Yo, that’s cool and all, but where are the cheap hubcap motors/modular battery systems that I asked for, for conversion/hybridisation of ICEs?
The SBC of electric cars! Resto mod your old Tesla with ICE power! While supplies last
Horse Powertrain add-on you say?
We’re adopting technology prematurely considered obsolete are we?
https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2014/06/19/17/Deux-Chevaux-press3.jpg
The ford maverick hybrid and rav4 have the 4 banger combined with the electric motor part of the CVT. Seamless transition from battery only, gas engine + battery, and gas only. The only thing missing is a larger battery and a plug in.
The biggest issue with this combo is the gas engine won’t be optimized for generator mode, nor drive mode. It’s a compromised and complicated design.
A better idea is an all electric power train (no transmission)and a combination gas engine +generator that optimized for the most efficient rpm. Make the gas/gen combo a single assembly and you’re going to see similar packaging advantages. E Rev!
Love our 25 maverick hybrid but looking forward to the Scout and other E Revs.
A solution looking for a problem.
The problem with Horse Powertrain is the woeful state of North American feeding infrastructure. I’d have serious anxiety unless I was on the range.
America’s corn farmers will take care of the range anxiety, and there is no need for refining it to ethanol. The emissions and especially the particulate emissions are the big bumps in the road however.
I am very skeptical of the viability of retrofitting this to any dedicated EV platform. More flexible platforms, sure, but not to any one designed to be a BEV only. So many changes would be required that you’d end up with a multi energy platform anyway. Better to consider such an option right from the start of design.
“roughly the same space” looks to me like this thing would need a hoodline/dash height similar to a Peterbilt tri-ax dump.
So putting a bunch of Jackery boxes in the frunk as a range extender is a bad idea, then? It sure beats the gas generator on the passenger seat, just ask the previous owner. If you could.
Just swing by Taco Bell, you can quickly have a gas generator in the passenger seat.
Because the one thing a moderately reliable EV needs is a French/Chinese combustion engine?
Two things:
Use a lawn mower engine as the range extender LOL
Honestly, Fiat’s TwinAir engine would’ve been good for this purpose, too.
Harbor Freight Predator by Loncin for the win!
It’s makes sense in some aspects it’s like a super economical parallel hybrid. I think we are in REX territory now but I could see this going in $6k to $8k Chinese car.
Why not the other way around? Offer it as a crate engine hyrid conversion for FWD ICE cars? Seems like it should be pretty easy to drop into an older econobox with limited value otherwise.
Where would the battery go?
The same place the gas tank would go on an EV?
In the back / trunk or under the rear seat. Wouldn’t be able to get a ton of capacity but could probably get to up to 24ish kwh of LFP in most ecoboxes without too much issues beefed suspension and reinforced areas probably not out of the question though. I guess you could take off the the gas tank and fab a box then have a smaller gas tank too.
In the trunk… just like the one Ford kludged into the C-Max
And that was the big old air-cooled packs. Their contemporary HVB is about the size of a luggage case.
Sometimes you find these kind of things at auctions after a company imported them for some purpose and either went another way or went out of business. Maybe if the EPA is still being calm and the terrifs calm someone will. They import zongshien rotax clones for airplanes if the FAA is fine with it I don’t see why other bodies wouldn’t have issue.
Neat!
Having worked for a builder of commercial chassis powertrain parts, it’s difficult enough to get capable OEMs to install your stuff correctly. If you let Joe Blow do the system engineering / installation here it would be difficult to offer any kind of reasonable warranty. Harbor Freight Predator Loncin engines give 90 days.
That was my first thought as soon as I’ve seen this. Amazing that we’re now marketing hybrid conversion kits for EVs, completely skipping conversion of ICE cars. This is what I find most insidious in the push for electrification: it’s not really an environmental concern; it’s just a push for new ways of making money.
To blatantly rip off Strong Bad:
Fun-sized? What’s fun about less engine?
Well technically this is “more engine” added to an EV platform. For example, Chevy could add this to the EV-only Ultium platform, making a plug-in hybrid without having to completely redesign the EV platform.
Also: consummate Vs, I said consummate Vs!
I do like the concept, actually. I just saw the opportunity and went for it.
“I’ll improve on your methods!”
Hybrid/PHEV is a valid use case for much of the US. I live in the exburbs with no local charging and do routinely drive 150 miles or more when I drive (WFH most days but when I out I go many places at once). I have no enclosed garage area so a home charger could be probematic. This is even moreso a problem for urban and apt dwellers. I also reguarly drive 300 plus miles one way on work trips and the ability to go approx 600 miles on a tank of gas is huge.
“While space will still need to be found in the vehicle’s structure for a fuel tank, this seems like a great tool for turning EVs into hybrids, including flexibility in how this hybrid system itself operates.”
This seems entirely unrealistic. Most EVs, unless designed with multiple powertrain platforms in which case the manufacturer will just use their own systems, are designed utilizing space where ICE support components would be. The battery occupies all the space for a gas tank and exhaust piping. Without a gas tank and exhuast/muffler, the rear suspension can be moved rearward to improve interior packaging, etc, etc.
So adding gas tank is only one of the problems. You’d have to find a place to mount a gas tank, run gas lines, exhaust (maybe run to the fender, that worked great for Fiskar), also cut a gaping hole in the nose to get to the radiator that you will also need to somehow mount.
Maybe they’re going to sell to smaller companies to get their first products out?
Yeah, I think the use-case here is an EV company deciding to offer EREVs. They put in a smaller battery and a gas tank from the start. That said, I could see a person trying to install one of these and a small gas tank in the frunk of some EVs for a range extender.
Yeah, the ICE is really only a tiny part of the problem here. Thermal management, both for coolant and exhaust, underhood airflow, exhaust system, fuel tank, evap considerations, NVH, the list goes on and on…and then after all that gets sorted out….certification. Hard pass. I’ve personally done a REX conversion on an EV platform and you are WAY better off to add hybridization to an ICE.
Agreed. I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure automobiles are like … really hard to design and manufacture. Even if it would work, it’s a multi-year project. Not like GM is just going to start plopping these into Blazer EVs next week.
It seems like the use case for something like this is pretty small. I think their target is to sell this to companies that build small range-compromised EV, right? It seems like great packaging, but in a sub-compact it might still be extremely tough to fit in a platform that was designed from the ground up as an EV. And bigger cars already have more battery and more range and probably an equivalent hybrid model in the lineup. Maybe I’m missing the point? (not the point, so much as who it’s for?)
Obviously it would be a cool aftermarket option to turn a used compliance type EV (like an e-Golf or a smaller pack Leaf) into a vehicle that’s more viable in the long term, but surely it wouldn’t be cost effective.
Basically wrote the same thing as you at the same time. Though I like your idea for compliance vehicles, or use to really impress everyone in one of those golfcart communities.
While I don’t fully understand the use case, Geely seems to be pretty solid from a business case. They aren’t BYD but they still have grown to be quite successful in a relatively short amount of time. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they see opportunities for this that makes good sense?
But as a crate option, it would be pretty neat.