Horse Powertrain is notionally a new company, but its roots stretch right back to 2010, when China’s Geely acquired Volvo from Ford and united two disparate combustion engine development programmes under one umbrella.
Rather than winding down the existing ICE programmes, the two firms bucked the wider industry trend towards all-out electrification. Instead, they invested in and expanded the division, in recognition, says Horse Powertrain CEO Matias Giannini, “that they were going to need combustion engines to continue to be better and better for a long time”.