Resilient propulsion strategies require options

Not every joke works in every location. This week, during an opening panel at SAE International's WCX 2026, Ford's director of motion tech strategy at Ford, Mazen Hammoud, started off with a pun. Hammoud thanked the moderator, Chris Atkinson, professor and director of the Advanced Mobility Initiative at Ohio State University, for the introduction, then he paused and said, “I love your engines.”

Sure, that's kind of a groaner, but it also brought out some smiles, which was not exactly guaranteed as a session called “Engineering a resilient propulsion strategy in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world.” Panelists discussed what our collective automotive future might look like in an industry where the powertrain of choice keeps changing these days.