COLUMBUS, Ind. — Cummins Inc. announced Monday that it is expanding its powertrain platforms, leveraging a range of lower carbon fuel types.
As the industry’s first unified, fuel-agnostic engines, these platforms will use engine blocks and core components that share common architectures and will be optimized for different low-carbon fuel types.
“Getting to zero is not a light-switch event,” Srikanth Padmanabhan, president of Cummins Engine Business, said. “Carbon emissions that we put into the atmosphere today will have a lasting impact. This means anything we can do to start reducing the carbon footprint today is a win for the planet. We need to take action now “Having a variety of lower carbon options is particularly important considering the variation in duty cycles and operating environments across the many markets we serve. There is no single solution or “magic bullet” that will work for all application types or all end users.”
Parts Commonality
These new fuel-agnostic engine platforms will feature a series of engine versions that are derived from a common base engine, which means they have a high degree of parts commonality. Below the head gasket of each engine will largely have similar components and above the head gasket will have different components for different fuel types. Each engine version will operate using a different, single fuel.
“This is a new way of designing and developing lower emission internal combustion powertrains that meet the unique needs of the transportation industry while leveraging the benefits of a common product architecture and footprint where possible,” said Jonathon White, Vice President of Engineering, Engine Business. “This unique technology approach will allow end users to more seamlessly pick the right powertrain for their application with the lowest CO2 impact.”
Parts commonality means it will be easier for OEMs to integrate a variety of fuel types across the same truck chassis and there will be minimal costs to train technicians and re-tool service locations, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership for the end user.
Reliability & Durability
These fuel-agnostic platforms are designed and built-upon the learnings extracted from millions of diesel and natural gas engines manufactured and currently in-use. Today’s digital and connected technologies allow Cummins to extract insights specific to different engine duty cycles and leverage these to design reliable fuel-agnostic platforms.
“Our customers can be confident in Cummins’ unmatched testing and evaluation process ensuring high-performance products,” White said. “No matter what type of work a fleet does, we’ll have an engine powered by lower carbon fuels with diesel-like performance to get the job done.”
Destination Zero
Two of the company’s environmental sustainability goals for 2030 goals include reducing lifetime greenhouse gas emissions from newly sold products by 25% and partnering with customers to reduce emissions from products in the field by 55 million metric tons.
“Cummins is innovating at every level of the company to find new ways of working that use fewer of the world’s resources and the engine business is at the center of this exciting innovation,” Padmanabhan said. “We know that our planet cannot wait for the perfect solution to happen. Instead, our approach must be a combined effort of using zero emissions power where it’s available and using cleaner power where it is not. The planet cannot afford for us to hit pause in the meantime.”
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
