Dan Tetu, Phinia Delphi: “We strongly believe that internal combustion engines and combustion-based products still have a future”

“We believe that the internal combustion engine industry still has a bright future ahead. If today one in five cars produced is electric, the estimate is that in five years, by 2030, two out of five cars produced will be electric.

Beyond the passenger car segment, there is also a very large market in commercial vehicles and in agriculture, and there we still rely on combustion engines, which gives us solid prospects,” said Dan Tetu, Plant Manager, Phinia Delphi Iasi, during the Automotive Forum 2025 organized by Automotive Today and The Diplomat-Bucharest.

Key statements:

• The trend is clearly moving toward electric vehicles, but the growth rate is not what was expected two or three years ago. By 2030, approximately 40% of the cars produced will be electric. On the other hand, we see many customers turning to hybrid vehicles, and we believe this market will be important in the future. For now, we are focusing on markets that will certainly maintain high consumption of internal combustion engines.

• Asia is on top, with 30% of vehicles produced currently being electric. At the opposite end is North America. Europe is somewhere in the middle, at around 20%.

• We strongly believe that internal combustion engines and combustion-based products have a future. What matters is to invest, develop, and bring sustainable solutions for everything related to the environment.

• We also have alternative solutions. We already have contracts in place for hydrogen technologies in the commercial vehicle sector, especially in the medium-duty segment. Our R&D area is heavily focused on this direction.

• We are working to bring in new business and attract new customers. Looking at the past five years, our revenue has been slightly increasing—about 3% year-over-year—and we are confident in the future of combustion.

• We have lost many opportunities to transfer business from high-cost countries to best-cost countries such as Romania. It is very important to send a clear message externally that we have plans to improve predictability and do things better so we can attract new business to Romania. This is my goal for the coming period: to increase turnover, grow our number of employees, become more efficient and more profitable, and demonstrate that we can be profitable in Romania compared to other countries in the region.