Abstract: Several countries’ governments are producing mandatory regulations of automotive engineering
to reduce CO2 emission and fuel consumption. The electric vehicles are one of the results by engineers'
special efforts. This paper gives a wider view of innovation of automotive engineering and a look into the
future. Technology trends include that 1) More Intelligent driver assistance systems can be distinguished
into safety functions, comfort functions, traffic efficiency improvement and environmental effect reduction; 2)
Body technology is determined by the used materials with competition between multi-materials, steel, and
carbon fibres; 3) Chassis technology is improved by integrated vehicle dynamics control, active suspension
components and material application; 4) Drive trains are converted into hybrid-drives with intelligent solutions
on the horizon for these hybrid gearboxes, but also for four-wheel drive systems; 5) Electronic control is
focusing on central control modules, the mobile phone for quite new applications and inventions for car
lighting.

Key words: automotive engineering, CO2 reduction, electric vehicle (EV), driver assistance systems, chassis,
body, drive trains, electronics and mechatronic systems