The money will go towards upgrades and retooling at several U.S. factories to build fuel-agnostic engines and hydrogen-producing electrolyzers.
Cummins Inc. is investing more than $1 billion across its U.S. engine manufacturing network in Indiana, North Carolina and New York.
The Columbus, Ind., engine systems manufacturer says the investment will upgrade facilities involved in manufacturing its new fuel-agnostic engine platforms. These truck engines will run on low carbon fuels, including natural gas, diesel and eventually hydrogen, helping decarbonize the nation’s truck fleets today.
The investment was announced ahead of the April 3 visit by President Biden to the company’s Fridley, Minn. manufacturing facility. During the visit, President Biden discussed how his Investing in America agenda is supporting manufacturing, innovation and a clean energy economy, as well as creating good-paying jobs.
“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,” said Jennifer Rumsey, Cummins President and CEO. “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,” she said.
Cummins said the government funding within the new legislation will help 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 operations.
“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,” Rumsey says. “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. We can’t do this alone and are grateful for the continued partnership and collaboration with congressional leaders and the Biden Administration.”
Cummins announced in October 2022 it will begin manufacturing electrolyzers in the U.S. for the first time at its Fridley location. Since that announcement, the company launched its zero-emission Accelera electrolyzer, which will be made at the Fridley facility.
Electrolyzers help produce clean hydrogen for the clean energy supply chains that until now has largely been produced overseas.
“As a result of this legislation, we saw demand for U.S.-made electrolyzers skyrocket,” said Tony Satterthwaite, senior vice-president at Cummins. “And what you see here today is our ability to capitalize on that demand and create 100 new jobs at Fridley with many more at our supply base, as well as upskill part of our existing workforce.”
The following information highlights about half of Cummins’ announced investments. Information on additional investment in Indiana and North Carolina has not been made public.
Jamestown Engine Plant
Cummins plans to invest $452 million in its Jamestown Engine Plant (JEP) in Lakewood, N.Y. to upgrade the 998,000 square-foot facility to produce the X15N 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. Walmart will receive the very first field test unit in April 2023 to take part in the field test using renewable natural gas.
Fridley Electrolyzer Production
The Cummins Power Systems factory in Fridley will get a $10 million investment that will support 100 new jobs by 2024. The 1.1 million square feet facility currently houses design, product, service engineering and manufacturing. It employs more than 900 workers and will plan to dedicate 89,000 square feet of the existing facility to electrolyzer production starting April 24.
Reshoring Renaissance
The trend of reshoring and bringing jobs and investment back the U.S. facilities has surged over the past year. Indeed, the combination of reshoring and job announcements and foreign direct investment (FDI) for the full year 2022 were at the highest rate ever recorded, according to the latest data from The Reshoring Initiative, and organization that tracks and advocates for domestic production and investment. The organization says the Chips and Infrastructure Acts, along with prevailing deglobalization trends, drove fourth quarter results even higher than forecast.
The report says that while the rise in the trend is boosted by temporary support from federal policy, the stimulus is expected to result in further sustainable automotive investments in the U.S. Increased chip investments will also motivate more companies to assemble electronic products in the U.S. Nearshoring of work from Asia to Mexico will still require about 40 percent U.S. value added, leading The Reshoring initiative to expect 2023 and 2024 will continue to follow this trend, with about 350,000 job announcements per year.
Cummins Inc. designs, manufactures, distributes and services a broad portfolio of power solutions ranging from internal combustion, electric and hybrid integrated power solutions to components including filtration, aftertreatment, turbochargers, fuel systems, controls systems, air handling systems, automated transmissions, electric power generation systems, microgrid controls, batteries, electrolyzers and fuel cell products. The company employs about 73,600 people and posted $2.2 billion profits and $28.1 billion in revenues for 2022.
