CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee — Transport Enterprise Leasing, LLC, a commercial truck and trailer equipment lease and remarketing provider, and Columbus-based Cummins Inc. announced Wednesday the leasing company has signed a letter of intent planning to purchase Cummins’ 15-liter hydrogen internal combustion engines when available.
The company plans to integrate the Cummins’ X15H hydrogen engines into their fleet of heavy-duty trucks.
“Our customers are at the heart of our company. Providing them with the best-value trucks equipped with lower emissions power options will ensure that we are prioritizing their continued success and also reducing our environmental footprint,” said Doug Carmichael, CEO of Transportation Enterprise Leasing. “Cummins’ investment in multiple technologies minimizing emissions allows us to achieve both.”
“We are pleased to see the leadership of customers like TEL, who are exploring solutions like our fuel agnostic platform to help their own customers. The future will include many solutions to help customers decarbonize that meet their varied needs and duty cycles, and we believe hydrogen internal combustion engines will play an important role,” said Amy Boerger, vice president and general manager North America, Cummins Engine Business.
Since announcing the fuel agnostic platform, which includes the hydrogen option in both the 15 liter and 6.7 liter displacements, Cummins has responded to customer interest globally about the potential of the platform, and hydrogen in particular.
“We believe this technology is not only essential for the future of our planet but also for our customers to have access to options that work for them,” said Jim Nebergall, general manager, Cummins Hydrogen Engine Business. “Internal combustion engines that run on Hydrogen will provide customers a financially feasible and familiar power option.”
Hydrogen engines offer OEMs and end-users the benefit of adaptability by continuing to use familiar mechanical drivelines with vehicle and equipment integration. This mirrors current powertrains while continuing to provide the power and capability for meeting application needs. Significant reuse of parts and components from Cummins’ existing platforms drives scale advantages on cost and is also projected to deliver reliability and durability equal to diesel.
Hydrogen engines can use zero-carbon green hydrogen fuel, produced by Cummins-manufactured electrolyzers. The projected investment in renewable hydrogen production globally will provide a growing opportunity for the deployment of hydrogen-powered fleets utilizing either Cummins fuel cell or engine power.
Cummins Inc. will showcase its commitment to decarbonization at the industry’s largest tradeshow in Hannover, Germany this September. Cummins will display both medium- and heavy-duty hydrogen products, highlighting the technology’s ability to support decarbonization across multiple duty-cycles.
Cummins announced this week that the company signed a letter of intent with Canadian agricultural manufacturer Versatile to integrate hydrogen engines into ag equipment.
So far this year, Cummins has announced plans to create a prototype medium-duty, battery electric truck with Isuzu Motors Ltd., make hydrogen fuel cell powertrains with Daimler Trucks North America LLC and develop zero-emission mining truck applications with Komatsu.
