Dive Brief:
- Cummins is investing $580 million to upgrade its Rocky Mount engine plant in Whitakers, North Carolina, according to a Jan. 8 press release.
- The money will go toward creating 80 jobs, upgrading new equipment and adding an assembly line to expand the plant’s ability to produce gasoline and propane engines, a Cummins spokesperson told Manufacturing Dive in an email.
- The investment will also allow the site more capacity to help with natural gas emissions requirements, as well as explore and add alternative fuel options, including the fuel agnostic platform, a technology that helps reduce carbon emissions. The project is expected to be complete by 2027.
Dive Insight:
The platform and expansion are part of Cummins’ Destination Zero strategy, the engine maker’s goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.
“Cummins is focused on Destination Zero and getting there as quickly as possible,” Steve Pinkston, Cummins Rocky Mount Engine plant manager, said in a statement.
The engine maker has been adjusting its operations to help reach this goal by installing solar arrays at its sites worldwide.
In 2021, the company spent $42 million to modernize the Rocky Mount plant by installing a flexible machining line that uses less water in the manufacturing process. The following year, the company installed a 3.62-megawatt solar farm at the site, which produces power that goes directly to the plant.
The Rocky Mount investment is part of Cummins’ commitment to spend over $1 billion across its manufacturing network in Indiana, New York and North Carolina. The engine maker is investing $452 million to upgrade its engine plant in Jamestown, New York.
Cummins is also launching a $3 billion joint venture to manufacture batteries in the U.S. with OEMs Daimler Trucks and Paccar. The three companies have chosen an industrial park in Mississippi as the home of the site and expect to invest at least $1.9 billion on the project.
