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The safety concept of vehicles communicating with each other and the surrounding infrastructure has been under development in Europe for more than 20 years. Now it has come of age.

Volkswagen says more than two million of its vehicles have 'Car2X' technology, which enables them to take advantage of "local swarm intelligence", warning of traffic hazards and other relevant factors.

It is available as standard or an option in a range of VWs, including the Golf, T-Roc, Tiguan, Tayron, Passat, ID 3, ID 4, ID 5 and ID 7.

In the noughties, there were a number of European projects working on what then was known as V2V (vehicle to vehicle), often supported by major car makers and the electronics sector. The principle of the original V2V concept was simple enough: to harness low-cost wireless local area network hardware that was already widely in use.

With bespoke software, the operating range was 500 metres and vehicles were able to join and leave ad hoc peer-to-peer networks consisting of a number of vehicles in range of one another on a random basis. In that way, each car was networking only with vehicles immediately relevant to it.

VW's Car2X-capable vehicles can communicate between themselves and the infrastructure and no mobile network reception is needed to do it.

The communications take milliseconds, so a vehicle is instantly warned of emergency braking by a vehicle ahead, a traffic queue suddenly appearing or the approach of emergency vehicles from any direction.

Connecting to infrastructure such as intelligent roadside units as well as other vehicles allows warning of specific events like drivers heading the wrong way on a street or carriageway, traffic jams, unusual weather conditions, or people, animals and objects in the road.

In Germany, 1000 roadwork trailers have already been equipped with Car2X technology and roadside units are in place across Austria's motorway network. Other European countries are following suit with roadside units and emergency and special vehicles.

Car2X technology operates on the 'wi-fi standard, which enables vehicles to exchange warnings at a range of 800 metres. The notification process is open and standardised, allowing communication across all manufacturers' vehicles. There's no individual identification and exchanges are anonymous.

The system can interact with other vehicle sensors. For instance, with VW's optional Travel Assist with ACC, Car2X could reduce the vehicle's speed when it detects a traffic queue ahead that isn't yet visible. It can also help control acceleration in assisted lane-change manoeuvres.

Volkswagen expects other types of vehicles to be included in Car2X, including motorcycles, trucks, buses and bicycles.

Shortly after revealing its plans for 'off-the-shelf' range-extender and hybrid powertrains, Horse Powertrain unveiled its Future Hybrid Powertrain solution late last year.

The "all-in-one" powertrain is aimed at enabling a vehicle manufacturer to easily convert a BEV platform to a hybrid by replacing a front-mounted BEV drive motor and transmission with a petrol-electric powertrain - making it a potentially cost-effective means of repackaging a pure-electric car as a hybrid. 

Two different versions will be available: the 740mm wide Performance, which incorporates two electric motors one on the engine output shaft and another on the transmission output shaft; and the 650mm wide Ultra-Compact, which has an electric motor between the engine and transmission.

Horse is also looking at a three-cylinder version, which cuts 70mm from the total width of the unit compared with the new four-cylinder set-up.

The Performance and Ultra-Compact form part of Horse Powertrain's X-Range family, which the firm calls a "category of solutions designed to enrich EV platforms with combustion and hybrid technology".

Both variants use the same 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine combined with a hybrid transmission and a full suite of power electronics that can integrate with other electrical systems, such as a DC/DC converter for stepping high voltage down to low voltage to power the usual vehicle ancillaries, an on-board charger and an 800V charging booster.

The units are installed transversely and have a slimline profile at the top and a wider profile at the bottom to comply with crash regulations. They can be used simply to convert a BEV to hybrid front-wheel drive, or combine with a rear-axle-mounted electric motor to create all-wheel drive. Both the Performance and Ultra-Compact can be employed to create a full hybrid, plug-in hybrid or range-extended EV.

The packaging of the units has been designed to reduce the front overhang by up to 150mm compared with a conventional hybrid powertrain. The unit is mounted on the existing vehicle subframe in the same way as the electric drive units it would replace, the aim being to use as many of the original BEV parts as possible and streamline manufacturing.

Horse says the compact design of the units allows ancillaries like heating, ventilation and air-con systems often located in the front motor compartment of an EV but not in a hybrid due to the size of a conventional hybrid powertrain to remain in place.

Both hybrid engines can run on petrol, E85 ethanol flex fuels, M100 methanol or synthetic fuels. Dedicated EV platforms modified by adding hybrid drives would not originally have been designed to accommodate fuel tanks, but Horse says a tank could be packaged into the space liberated by substituting an EV battery for a much smaller HEV or PHEV battery.

The Future Hybrid Powertrain is due to become commercially available early next year, but first official details on performance and compatibility are expected throughout 2026 as testing ramps up.