Cummins Increases Investment in Natural Gas With Fuel System, New Medium-Duty Engine
This story appears in the May 11 print edition of Transport Topics.
DALLAS — Moving ahead with natural-gas applications despite the past year’s drop in diesel prices, engine maker Cummins Inc. announced a pair of investments in the alternative fuel at the annual Alternative Clean Transportation Expo here.
Cummins will invest in Agility Fuel Systems, which makes natural-gas fuel storage and delivery systems for heavy-duty trucks and buses, to boost use of the alternative fuel, the two companies announced May 5.
Cummins, which makes the trucking industry’s primary 12-liter natural-gas engine under its Cummins Westport joint venture, did not disclose the amount of its investment.
Separately, Cummins Westport unveiled a new 6.7-liter natural-gas engine that it said will be in full production by mid-2016. Cummins Westport is a joint venture of Cummins and Westport Innovations.
Cummins and Agility said they will integrate their sales and aftermarket support and distribution networks and that the Cummins-Agility partnership will include technology development and integration of software and hardware “to significantly improve performance and uptime.”
“Our goal has always been to deliver a diesel-like experience to the end user, making natural gas-powered vehicles as easy to operate and service as diesel vehicles,” Agility CEO Barry Engle said. “By co-developing improved natural-gas solutions and utilizing the breadth of Cummins’ service network, we believe we can accelerate the adoption of natural gas as a fuel for more vehicles, including heavy-duty trucks.”
Added Roe East, Cummins’ general manager for on-highway natural- gas business: “Cummins and Agility are committed to bringing an enhanced experience to customers across North America. The partnership will “leverage our strengths and expertise to provide even more value to our natural-gas customers.”
After the announcement, East said that Cummins has no immediate plans to resurrect its own large-bore 15-liter nat-gas engine, development of which it put on a back burner last year, though that could change down the road.
“The 15-liter is still on the shelf,” East told Transport Topics on the ACT Expo show floor. “We think eventually there will be a market for an engine of that displacement and torque, but right now our crystal ball is still a little cloudy.”
“We don’t know when that market will evolve,” he said, but the ISX12 G “has been very successful, more fleets are using it, infrastructure’s being built to support it, so we think that’s the product that will pave the way for a 15-liter to eventually be feasible in the market.”
“We do anticipate a 15-liter at some point; we don’t know when yet,” East added.
The ISB6.7 G engine — which is based on Cummins’ ISB6.7 diesel engine platform — will be marketed toward school and shuttle bus, medium-duty truck and vocational applications.
The 6.7-liter is in field trials, with full production expected in mid-2016, Cummins Westport President Rob Neitzke said in unveiling the engine on the ACT Expo show floor May 5.
The engine “will offer customers low emissions with diesel-like performance, reliability and durability,” with the ability to use either compressed or liquefied natural gas, Neitzke said. It will be manufactured at Cummins’ medium-duty engine plant in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
The diesel version of the 6.7-liter engine accounts for “about 60% or 70% of the million engines that Cummins makes every year,” he said.
Cummins Westport’s sales of the 12-liter ISX12 G, its primary natural-gas engine for heavy-duty trucking applications, are about flat from last year, Neitzke said.
“There are some fleets that are on the fence with this fuel-price differential,” he said. “We had some growth planned for this year, but based on the fuel price, it hasn’t materialized.”
Early projections made when the engine was launched two years ago predicting it would gain 7% in market share also haven’t materialized, Neitzke said, adding that it is about 1% today.
The 12-liter has largely gone into day cabs but is “starting to go into sleepers,” said Hugh Donnell, manager of Cummins Westport’s truck segment. He added, “We’re not competing in over-the-road applications quite yet.”
