It wasn’t just the striking red engines powered by the likes of gasoline, natural gas and, eventually, hydrogen that stood out when Cummins invited a handful of trucking industry editors to its headquarters in Columbus, Indiana. The biggest surprise was how transparent and candid Cummins leadership and segment managers were about engine technology that isn’t yet available in the market.
Remember, this is the company that kept one of the biggest trucking industry acquisitions in recent memory quiet just before they announced it during a press conference call. A company that, historically, focused its communications on products fleets could buy today. The trucking industry is different now. It’s an industry that spends more time talking about what it’s going to do to tackle big issues like decarbonization and sustainability than what it’s doing to make ends meet today. Trucking is focused on the future.
And so is Cummins.
Sure Cummins has futuristic powertrain technologies like hydrogen fuel cells in the works, but the biggest takeaway from my time at Cummins was that they’re delivering decarbonization solutions starting today, and those solutions include diesel. They also include natural gas and hydrogen. In Cummins’s view, to create a sustainability seachange, you can’t wait for a perfect solution. You have to pick a solution that burns cleaner fuel more efficiently and boosts your fleet’s bottom line.
It’s a story that’s far too large for one post. So now you have a choice. Click below to read more about Cummins’s engine strategy going forward. (And don’t worry, all the stories are cross-linked for you to continue your Cummins journey so that you don’t have to come back to this page.)
