On April 3, 2023, President Biden visited Cummins in Fridley, Minnesota, as part of his Administration’s Investing in America tour. During the visit, President Biden discussed his Investing in America agenda and how it is supporting manufacturing, innovation, and a clean energy economy, as well as creating good-paying jobs in communities like Fridley and across the country. “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,” said Jennifer Rumsey, Cummins president and CEO. “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 are critical to our decarbonization efforts.”
Cummins announced that in addition to recent investments in Fridley, it is investing more than US$1 billion across its US engine manufacturing network in Indiana, North Carolina, and New York. The 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. “The historic investments included in those pieces of legislation played a key role in our decision to manufacture products here in the United States, creating more clean-tech jobs and positively impacting our communities,” said Rumsey. “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-emissions solutions — an approach that is best for all of our stakeholders and our impact on the planet.”
According to Cummins, more than half of all medium- and heavy-duty trucks on the road in the United States use Cummins engines. 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 invests in its people and facilities to grow innovation and manufacturing and accelerate its decarbonization efforts.
Investment Details
The announcement includes Cummins’ plans to invest US$452 million in its Jamestown Engine Plant (JEP) to upgrade its 998,000-scf (28,260-m3) facility 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. 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, among others, are beginning to test the very first engines of the fuel-agnostic platform, the X15N. 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.
At the Fridley facility, Accelera by Cummins — Cummins’ zero-emissions technology brand — will soon manufacture electrolyzers. Hydrogen produced by electrolyzers can power hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and is used in industrial processes like steel production. Cummins said that building electrolyzers in Fridley is helping bring the supply chain for zero-emissions vehicles to the United States — particularly 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-MMscf (31,149-m3) full-service facility, concentrating on design, product, service engineering, and manufacturing located just north of Minneapolis. Established in 1969, Fridley employs more than 900 people and plans to dedicate 89,000 scf (2520 m3) of the existing facility to electrolyzer production starting April 24. This is a US$10 million investment that will support 100 new jobs by 2024.
