Author: Christiane Köllner

News from the 13th International Engine Congress 2026

"Defossil with Style": the Combustion Engine Under Pressure

The courage to adopt a technology-neutral approach that also takes non-fossil fuels and combustion engines into account: Experts at the Engine Congress discuss why a holistic assessment is important.

How will the transformation of mobility take shape? With these words, Dr. Alexander Heintzel, Director of the congress and Editor-in-chief of the ATZ | MTZ Group, opened the 13th International Engine Congress 2026 in Baden-Baden, which is being organized in collaboration with the VDI Wissensforum. According to Heintzel, the combustion engine plays a central role in the transition to low-emission powertrains, especially with synthetic, CO₂-neutral fuels. Sustainable mobility must be reconciled with economic stability and technological competitiveness. This should be done in a realistic, technology-neutral, and responsible manner. "Defossil with style", as Heintzel sums it up.

Massive Job Cuts in the Supplier Industry

Social responsibility is a key topic in Frank Sell's keynote speech. The Chairman of the General Works Council Bosch Mobility talks about jobs in Europe in his video message. He represents 80,000 employees in Germany. In view of the comprehensive transformation in the automotive industry, Sell makes it clear that this change must be "social, ecological, and economic". However, he said, the transformation has broken its promises in many areas because it is anything but social. "We are seeing massive job cuts in the automotive industry on a scale never seen before, which is already having a disruptive effect", said Sell. Bosch alone has announced plans to cut a total of 22,000 jobs. Suppliers are particularly hard hit. Yet they are responsible for 75 % of the value added in automotive manufacturing in Europe. According to Sell, they are under extreme threat from Chinese suppliers. The employee representative is therefore calling for local content regulations in Brussels that could help suppliers protect their jobs from "Chinese infiltration". Sell also advocates a new model of cooperation between OEMs and suppliers.

Furthermore, Sell advocates technological diversity – instead of a "one-size-fits-all" solution, there should be an open drive system landscape. Bosch expects that by 2035, one-third of vehicles on the global market will be electric, one-third will be hybrids, and one-third will be gasoline-powered. Against this backdrop, Sell calls on the industry to stop "either/or" debates. Instead, he says, the focus must be on "both/and" in order to maintain and expand technological leadership in the midst of change and to preserve the local automotive industry's understanding of the system.

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