Dive Brief:

• Auto parts maker Cummins welcomed President Joe Biden for a visit Monday as the company announced its investment of more than $1 billion across its engine manufacturing network in Indiana, North Carolina and New York. 
• Cummins will upgrade its facilities to support its fuel-agnostic engine platforms that run on low-carbon fuels, including natural gas, diesel and, soon, hydrogen.
• The company put $10 million into its Fridley facility to produce hydrogen-based electrolyzers under its new technology brand, Accelera by Cummins. Production at the renovated site is expected to begin on April 24 and create 100 jobs by 2024, according to the release.

Dive Insight:

Biden’s visit to the Cummins Power Generation plant in Fridley, Minnesota was part of the White House's Investing in America tour.

The president noted in his remarks that the new facility allows Cummins to manufacture its hydrogen electrolyzers on U.S. soil. Cummins operates existing hydrogen electrolyzer manufacturing sites in China, Spain and Canada.  

"These are the machines that make clean hydrogen, a renewable energy used to power our economy, from clean cars to trucks to steel to cement manufacturing," Biden said. "But now, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act with the tax credits for renewable energy, Cummins is going to manufacture these electrolyzers here in America for the first time."

Like other auto parts manufacturers, Cummins is utilizing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act to expand its manufacturing operations, Cummins President and CEO Jennifer Rumsey said in the release.

"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 and positively impacting our communities," Rumsey said in a statement.

In addition to the 100 jobs Cummins is hiring for at the renovated plant, the company will retrain the facility’s current 600 workers to produce the hydrogen electrolyzers, Biden said in his remarks.  

The company also announced plans on Monday to invest $452 million toward upgrading its engine plant in Jamestown, New York, to produce fuel-agnostic, low-carbon internal combustion engine platforms for heavy-duty trucks. Cummins introduced the new engine platform in February 2022.