Future-proofing: Cummins Wants to Sell You More Than Just Diesels

by Steph Willems

Published: June 18th, 2017

future proofing cummins wants to sell you more than just diesels

It’s hard to hear the name Cummins and not immediately think of a Ram pickup struggling valiantly to pull a gnarled tree stump out of the unyielding earth. Certainly, the company’s diesel inline-six and V8 engines are to the truck world what Nike is to professional sports.

While Cummins’ fossil fuel-powered engines and power systems show no signs of becoming passé, a company ignores the future at its own peril. The green revolution is afoot, we’re told, and internal combustion power will one day occupy the niche currently inhabited by electric propulsion. With this in mind, Cummins has a plan.

During a teleconference Thursday, company executives outlined what the near future holds.

“As a global power leader for the commercial and industrial markets we serve, we are better positioned than any other company to win in new and emerging technologies,” said Tom Linebarger, Cummins Chairman and CEO. “Over the past 100 years, our ability to innovate and adapt has fueled our success and we are confident we are on the right path to do it again at this critical juncture. We are prepared to provide a range of power technologies to our customers from diesel and natural gas to fully electric and hybrid powertrains to ensure they always have the best solution for their application.”

That 6.7-liter inline-six turbo diesel in your Ram work truck (or oil-burning 5.0-liter V8 in your Nissan Titan) won’t disappear overnight. The company claims it will continue to focus on diesel engines as a core component of its business model, while pouring more R&D dollars into green tech. Cummins first went down this road with its natural gas-powered engines.

If future truck owners want it, Cummins wants to supply it.

So great is the urge to be out in front, the company is considering teaming up with others. Cummins hopes to develop a range of products — electric energy storage systems, power electronics and traction motor systems — for commercial applications.

“Cummins will begin electrified powertrain delivery in 2019, including battery electric and plug-in hybrids,” the company said in a statement. Calling these “first steps” just the beginning, Cummins claims to be working on gasoline engines which feature diesel-like performance, as well as a number of “exploratory” fuel cell projects.

[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]

#AlternativeEnergy #Cummins #Diesel #ElectricVehicles #HybridVehicles #Suppliers

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Sector 5 on Jun 18, 2017

I find an interesting angle on the pickup market: In the near future along comes a practical EV pickup. It's front wheel drive only. What share of the market would it fail to capture due to that factor? That's to say how many American buyers really need a pickup for it's intended purpose?

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- Stuki on Jun 18, 2017
  
  For all those who use them to tow any significant weight any significant distance, EV pickups are not likely in the near future.
  
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- Scoutdude on Jun 18, 2017
  
  Well for a lot of gov't fleets an EV truck would be just fine. I see many city and school district vehicles that take 15,20 or more years to reach that 100-150K mile retirement mark. So a range of 50-100 mi per day would be more than enough for many of their vehicles. School buses would be a great application. They all return to the bus barn every night where they could charge and many will get a mid day break where they could get a little boost. You could also put a few chargers at each school and give them a good bump as they wait for school to end, the students to load and the call to head out is made. Sure you would need a few conventional buses to take on longer field trips, take the team to state championship ect. Throw in a person or council who is set on saving the world and thinks EVs are the way to do it and you could have quick adoption in gov't markets and a lot of gov't fleets have a lot of experience with Cummins powered vehicles so when the person in charge of purchasing the vehicles gets a mandate to buy x% EV vehicles Cummins could stand to do quite well.
  
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- Big Al from Oz on Jun 18, 2017
  
  Joss, Most pickups are large rear wheel drive daily drivers. They are bought because "you can", like most any vehicle. People (read many pickup owners) state they need a pickup to to tote and tow. They even come up with creative ideas eg. my 6 year old will become tall. I own a pickup, can I get by without one? Yes. I own one because I can afford to keep it on the road. Puckup owners that make many over reaching comments must feel guilty or they would be honest.
  
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- JPWhite on Jun 19, 2017
  
  @stuki "EV pickups are not likely in the near future." Workhorse have taken 10,000+ pre-orders for their fleet W-15 EV Pickup truck. http://workhorse.com/pickup/ Here is just one pre-order that occurred recently. "Workhorse Group (NASDAQ: WKHS) has received a Letter of Intent from Southern California Public Power Authority for 500 W-15 Plug-In Electric Pickup trucks." The near future does indeed appear to be near.
  
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- Vulpine on Jun 19, 2017
  
  @JPWhite Opinions and wishes vs reality. For all those who say there's no market, it's only because that market hasn't been tapped... yet.
  
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- Stuki on Jun 19, 2017
  
  @JPWhite Doubt those are intended to tow significant weight for any significant distance. Which, while not what most pickup buyers actually do most of the time, is a capability most of them want to have, at a minimum "just in case." And also, for governments, $2000 toilet seats are perfectly a-ok as well. Some may even be preordered. But my money is still on an F150 with an ICE outselling this thing for quite some time. A truck doing the fairly common truck thing of towing things a non truck can't; will require a steady output in the hundreds of horsepower (Hence the size of the radiators required to cool the things.) Energy density in batteries are simply not close to provide even pretend-parity with diesel, or even gas, for those kind of duty cycles. The occasional "We're going green with other people's green" stunt notwithstanding.
  
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- Vulpine on Jun 20, 2017
  
  @stuki Less than 50% of all pickups sold each year tow anything over 5000 pounds during their lifetime. Few even tow that much. This isn't to say there isn't a need for such heavy haulers, there is; but most pickup trucks are either used for light-duty services or do-it-yourself projects. Honestly, unless you're planning to haul a heavy 7500# or heavier camper behind it, most people simply don't need as much as they get and tend to waste far too much money on what is otherwise a status symbol. A BEV pickup can do almost anything any half-ton pickup can do and probably do it far cheaper when it comes to fuel costs (at least 50% cheaper "fuel", depending on grade used) while offering the kind of horsepower and torque to get out its own way, as well as the way of any other vehicle, just about. Yes, BEVs do have their limitations. But those limitations are nearly as severe as some would have you believe. Unless you REGULARLY travel farther than the battery's rated range, you NEVER have to stop for a recharge in everyday driving; simply plug it in at home (to your dryer outlet) and you're good to go the next day. A Class 2 recharger would have you ready to go in four hours, even if you have an 85kWh - 100kWh battery. On the road, you will have to make stops to recharge but even then they're not that much more frequent than refilling a gasoline-fueled truck and you don't have to stand at the side of the rig to fuel it while it's plugged in. And electrics have an advantage not even diesels offer--all that torque at zero RPM; you can get your load moving out and moving quicker than even the most powerful diesel, though admittedly the diesel •might• have a higher top end. Then again, you're not supposed to be towing at 80mph, much less 100mph or more.
  
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IBx1 on Jun 19, 2017

Let's fire up the ole Cummins and head to the truck meet! *click* *whirr* Wooohoooo!

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