Horse Powertrain takes Sturmey Award
Horse Powertrain, a global leader in innovative and low-emission powertrain systems, has been awarded the prestigious Sturmey Award at the 2026 Autocar Awards.
HELPING HYBRIDITY
OEMs know that a dedicated platform delivers the greatest benefits with the least scar mass. But developing separate platforms for powertrain types( BEV, ICE, HEV, PHEV, REEV), is wildly expensive and complex.
Horse Powertrain’ s dedicated ICE engineering has proven its value by providing OEMs with the options they need to create new HEV, PHEV, and REEV powertrain solutions tailored to customer needs. With ICE engines developed specifically for the purpose of functioning as the petrol powertrain component in NEVs, without the disadvantages of simply recycling pure ICE powertrain engines and trying to integrate them with NEVs
First awarded in 2014, the Sturmey Award is one of Autocar’ s biggest and most prestigious prizes, recognising outstanding people, companies, or technologies that represent the most significant innovations and achievements in the automotive industry.
Horse Powertrain was selected for the prize, with judges praising the impressive engineering and innovation behind the company and its products and services. One of the highest costs and integration challenges with powertrains is balancing platform costs with the risk of volatile future emission regulations and powertrain mandates.
Horse Powertrain functions as a joint venture between Renault, Geely, and Saudi Aramco. At its core, it’ s a dedicated automotive powertrain engineering company.
Headquartered in London, the company engineers and manufactures internal combustion engines, hybrid architectures, transmissions, and range extenders for global automakers. Much of its work is helping legacy and emerging automakers find the balance between hybrid powertrains and customer needs.
The company’ s technical innovation includes its pioneering X-Range powertrain series, which enables automakers to convert BEV-native platforms into HEVs, PHEVs, and REEVs. Horse Powertrain has been recognised for its breakthroughs in increasing powertrain thermal efficiency and reducing the carbon intensity of combustion and hybrid vehicles.
‘ HIGHLY EFFICIENT HYBRIDS’
Matias Giannini, the CEO of Horse Powertrain, received the trophy from Autocar editor-at-large, Matt Prior, at the annual event hosted at Armoury House, London.
On accepting the award, Matias Giannini said:“ It is a great honour to receive this prestigious award from Autocar and a fantastic recognition of the talented global teams that make up Horse Powertrain.”
“ Together, they are delivering the innovations driving the industry towards net zero. As a powertrain solutions partner to numerous OEMs, we remain committed to a culture of innovation that, through our products and systems integration expertise, enables continuous reductions in mobility emissions- whether through electrification, alternative fuels or highly efficient hybrids.”
WORDS IN ACTION 10 JUNE 2026