Discussions on electrification, air pollution control and driving bans in inner cities bring major challenges for powertrain development. Real Driving Emissions (RDE), Worldwide Harmonized Light-Duty Test Procedures (WLTP) and the next level of CO2 reduction enforce new development methods. At the same time, new measurement technology and better IT infrastructure mean that ever larger amounts of data are available. Thereby, methods of digitization, e.g. Machine Learning, may be used in automotive development. Another challenge arises from the ever-increasing number of vehicle variants. Many OEMs reduce the number of their engines to reduce costs. However, the basic engines are then installed with little hardware customization in numerous vehicle models. As a result, the application of derivatives and the systematic validation of an application play an important role.