Cummins To Invest Over $1 Billion In Upgrading Its Facilities

By Amit Chowdhry • Apr 3, 2023

Today President Biden is visiting Cummins in Fridley, Minnesota (USA) as part of the Administration’s Investing in America tour. And during the visit, President Biden will discuss how the “Investing in America” agenda is supporting manufacturing, innovation, and a clean energy economy, as well as creating good-paying jobs in communities like Fridley and across the country.

Coinciding with the visit, Cummins also announced that in addition to recent investments in Fridley, the company is investing over $1 billion across its U.S. engine manufacturing network in Indiana, North Carolina, and New York. And this investment will provide upgrades to those facilities to support the industry’s first fuel-agnostic engine platforms that will run on low-carbon fuels, including natural gas, diesel, and eventually hydrogen, helping decarbonize the nation’s truck fleets today.

Over half of all medium- and heavy-duty trucks on the road in the U.S. today currently use Cummins engines. And this investment is intended to retain the thousands of current engineering and manufacturing jobs and support the creation of hundreds of new jobs across the company’s New York, North Carolina, and Indiana footprint as Cummins is investing in its people and facilities to grow innovation and manufacturing and accelerate their decarbonization efforts.

Jamestown Engine Plant / First Fuel Agnostic Engines Arriving to Customers

The company’s announcement includes Cummins’ plans to invest $452 million in its Jamestown Engine Plant (JEP) to upgrade its 998,000 square-foot facilities in Western New York to produce the industry’s first fuel-agnostic internal combustion engine platform that leverages a range of lower carbon fuel types. And the X15N is part of the new fuel-agnostic 15-liter engine platform produced at JEP.

Cummins customers, including Walmart, Werner, Matheson, and National Ready Mix, etc., are beginning to test the very first engines of the fuel-agnostic platform, which is called the X15N. And Walmart will receive the very first field test unit later in April to take part in the field test of this industry-first, 15-liter advanced engine platform running on renewable natural gas.

Cummins U.S. Electrolyzer Product in Fridley, Minnesota

At the Fridley facility, Accelera by Cummins – which is Cummins’ zero-emission technology brand – will soon manufacture electrolyzers. These are critical pieces of the green hydrogen economy. The hydrogen produced by electrolyzers can power hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and is used in industrial processes like steel production.

Building electrolyzers in Fridley is helping to bring the supply chain for zero-emissions vehicles to the United States – especially in heavy trucking industries – and employing hundreds of workers in the area with good-paying jobs.

The Cummins Power Systems factory is a 1.1 million square feet full-service facility that concentrates on design, product, service engineering, and manufacturing located just north of Minneapolis. Established in 1969, the Fridley facility employs over 900 and will plan to dedicate 89,000 square feet of the existing facility to electrolyzer production starting April 24. This is a $10 million investment that will support 100 new jobs by 2024.

KEY QUOTES:

“I am delighted that we will have the chance to show President Biden the innovative work we are doing at our Fridley plant and our incredible Cummins employees who are doing it. In just a few weeks, we will begin manufacturing one of the key pieces of technology for green hydrogen production that will help decarbonize our economy and drive the clean energy transition – the electrolyzer. Support from the Biden Administration and Congress with legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act are driving the clean energy economy forward in the United States and critical to our decarbonization efforts.”

“The historic investments included in those pieces of legislation played a key role in our decision to manufacture products here in the U.S., creating more clean-tech jobs and positively impacting our communities. The electrolyzer production in Minnesota and investment in our Indiana, North Carolina and New York facilities are reflective of our dual path approach of advancing both engine-based and zero-emission solutions – an approach that is best for all of our stakeholders and our impact on the planet. We can’t do this alone and are grateful for the continued partnership and collaboration with congressional leaders and the Biden Administration.”

  • Jennifer Rumsey, Cummins President and CEO