Abstract: An internal combustion engine having a cylinder and a piston movable in the cylinder, the cylinder and piston defining a combustion chamber enclosed by the cylinder and the piston, a surface of at least one of at least one component of the combustion chamber and an adjoining space that comes into contact with at least one of a fuel-air mixture to be combusted and with motor oil has, at least in certain areas, a catalytic coating for oxidizing carbonization residues, the coating consists of a ternary vanadium oxide compound and at least one other compound of at least one metal oxide, the metal oxide is at least one of the group consisting of a cerium oxide, an oxide of another rare-earth metal, an oxide of lanthanum (La), and an oxide of a transition metal.