Engine maker Cosworth will continue to focus on ICE powertrains beyond the end of the decade, new CEO Florian Kamelger has told Autocar.
This is down to a new pivot into the luxury market, catering towards high-end brands, said Kamelger.
The key to this will be creating new partnerships similar to those it currently has with Aston Martin and Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) to build rasping V12s for the Valkyrie and T50 supercars.
“Luxury is ICE. The emotion, the passion, the songs, the smell, even,” said Kamelger, who, along with new chairman Gerald Forsythe, today took over from outgoing boss Hal Reisiger.
Pushing towards luxury markets will give the 66-year-old British firm the most sustainable, future-proofed footing, Forsythe said. The American businessman added that it is time to take Cosworth “to the next level”.
He said: “We remain convinced that internal combustion engines have a long future powering cars in the luxury sector - and it is this core sector where we see the most opportunity for sustainable growth.”
The next task for the new management team, which also includes the appointment of Andreas Baenziger as deputy chairman, is to evaluate the business – with job cuts or restructuring not ruled out.
“There will be changes that we have to make, as Cosworth has seen many in its history,” said Kamelger. “Every time it has emerged stronger, fitter and at the forefront of automotive technology.”
Asked if the Cosworth’s EV battery and PHEV powertrain brands – Delta Cosworth and Cosworth Electronics – would suffer because of this bigger ICE focus, Kamelger said: “We will continue to invest in these new technologies to keep the company at the vanguard of automotive.”
Making those combustion engines “as sustainable as possible” to align itself with growing public and customer views is another focus of the brand.
“There is a wish from customers to be sustainable, to go into e-fuels,” he said. “They want to be clean, but they still want to drive their old or new [ICE-powered] super- and hypercars.”
One way could be to make smaller engines, he said, but he added that engineers would first push to make its V12 carbon neutral.
Referencing Rimac founder Mate Rimac, who earlier this month told reporters that electric supercars are “no longer cool”, Kamelger said: “The question is not whether fuel or the internal combustion engine destroys the world. The question is: is the car, in this entire production and life cycle, as sustainable as it possibly can be? We will certainly look into these things."
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