Method for operating a drive device and corresponding drive device

A drive device, comprising:

• an internal combustion engine having a cylinder head with a plurality of cylinders;
• an exhaust gas system connected to the internal combustion engine and including a catalytic converter;
• a heating device integrated in the cylinder head and heating a cold air stream to produce a hot air stream which is mixed upstream of the catalytic converter with a chemically unaltered cold fresh air stream for adjusting a defined temperature of the hot air stream to provide the adjusted hot air stream having the adjusted defined temperature and supplied to the catalytic converter in at least one operating state of the internal combustion engine so as to heat the catalytic converter;
• a conduit conducting the chemically unaltered cold fresh air through at least one of the cylinders which is operated in a trailing throttle mode;
• an air distributor branching off the cold air stream from a fresh air stream at a retrieval point upstream of the internal combustion engine and conducting the cold air stream to the heating device;
• a compressor compressing the fresh air stream upstream of the retrieval point;
• and
• a connecting line supplying the fresh air stream to the air distributor for providing the cold air stream and the chemically unaltered cold fresh air stream.