Renault part-owns the hybrid unit in Geely's 1,128 PS Defender rival
The firm that inherited Renault's engine business now builds 4,920 Nm off-road hybrids
Horse Powertrain revealed a hybrid drive system on 3 September that will not appear in a Renault, a Dacia or anything else sold on this continent. It is called the 3DHT200, it is aimed squarely at off-road vehicles, and it debuts on a boxy Chinese SUV. Renault owns 45 percent of the company that engineered it, which makes the destination the interesting part.
Horse Powertrain is 45 percent Renault, 45 percent Geely and 10 percent Aramco
Horse Powertrain was formally established on 31 May 2024, when Renault moved its combustion and hybrid engineering out of the group and into a joint venture with Geely. Renault and Geely hold 45 percent each, and Saudi Aramco bought the remaining 10 percent that December. The company is registered in London, employs roughly 19,000 people across the former Renault division and Geely's Swedish arm Aurobay, and supplies Renault, Dacia, Volvo, Lynk & Co, Proton, Nissan and Mitsubishi. Its upgraded V20 plug-in hybrid engine is assembled at Skövde in Sweden.
The 3DHT200 puts 13 parts and a three-speed gearbox in one housing
The 3DHT200 is the third member of Horse's 3DHT family and the first designed for off-road duty. A 150 PS starter-generator cranks the engine and makes electricity, a 313 PS traction motor drives the wheels, and the combustion engine runs through a three-speed dedicated hybrid transmission rather than the single ratio most plug-in hybrids make do with. Horse counts 13 components inside one case, including both inverters, the on-board charger, the DC-DC converter and the thermal management hardware, and says the package is 10 percent smaller than the parts it replaces. Geely has been chasing the same integration on the pure-electric side with its 16-in-1 electric drive unit.
The 4,920 Nm figure is measured at the wheels, not at the crankshaft
Horse quotes 4,920 Nm of wheel output torque, which is the number after the gearing has multiplied it, and that is a different quantity from the engine or motor torque a brand normally prints on a spec sheet. Read it as a climbing figure rather than a bragging figure: Horse says it is enough to haul a vehicle up a 45-degree slope. The traction motor spins beyond 20,000 rpm, and the company says a reworked permanent-magnet layout lifted torque density by 15 percent and power density by 20 percent over the arrangement it replaces.
The Galaxy Cruiser 700 makes 1,128 PS and reaches Britain from 2028
The 3DHT200's first home is the Geely Galaxy Cruiser 700, the boxy off-roader Geely launched in China on 25 July and put on show in Milan the following day. It runs 5,085 mm long on a 2,900 mm wheelbase, wades to 800 mm, and pairs the 3DHT with a rear motor for a combined 1,128 PS. Geely has been unusually blunt about what happens next: its UK marketing director Tianxiao Yan said the brand would definitely launch the car in Britain, and Geely's UK product plan schedules a Cruiser-shaped model from 2028. Land Rover, meanwhile, has pushed its electric Defender into the 2030s.
Renault's own flagship hybrid, the Rafale E-Tech 4x4, makes 305 PS
That leaves Renault somewhere awkward. The most powerful hybrid it sells in Europe is the Rafale E-Tech 4x4, which musters 305 PS and 450 Nm, a little over a quarter of what the Cruiser 700 claims. Renault builds no ladder-frame off-roader and has announced no plan for one. It does own 45 percent of the company that engineered the hardware, and Horse collected Autocar's Sturmey Award for innovation in June for its X-Range hybrid and range-extender work. Nor is the Cruiser the only Europe-bound answer to the Defender: BYD is readying a seven-seat plug-in hybrid for the same buyers.
AutoNext Take
Horse exists because Renault decided its combustion and hybrid engineering had a better future outside the company than inside it. Two years on, the joint venture's most advanced new hybrid hardware has been launched in Chinese, for a Chinese SUV, timed to a Chinese brand's product plan. Renault owns 45 percent of the company that holds the intellectual property and none of the car. That is a fair trade if the licence income arrives. It is a bad one if Renault's own showrooms never see the technology.
So here is the test, and it comes with a date on it. Renault's most powerful European hybrid makes 305 PS. If nothing derived from the 3DHT200 has reached a Renault, a Dacia or an Alpine by the time the Galaxy Cruiser goes on sale in Britain in 2028, then Horse is not Renault's engine division operating at greater scale. It is Geely's engineering arm that Renault helps pay for.
