P-J file photo by Christopher Blakeslee Jennifer Rumsey, Cummins chairwoman and CEO, and Shawn Hricko, Cummins Jamestown Engine Plant manager, are pictured during the plant’s 50th anniversary celebration in July.

Full production of the new X15N engine has begun at Cummins Inc,’s Jamestown Engine Plant..

Jennifer Rumsey, Cummins chairwoman and CEO, led off the company’s third quarter conference call with investor analysts discussing the launch of the engine, which was the impetus for a $452 million line upgrade at the Busti engine plant over the past year.

“Before getting into the details on our financial performance, I want to take a moment to highlight a few major accomplishments from the third quarter,” Rumsey said. “In September, we started full production of our X15N natural gas engine at our Jamestown Engine Plant, which is the first version of our 15-liter HELM platform to launch in the U.S. The X15N delivers performance, durability and power required in a variety of applications and is an excellent alternative for fleets looking to significantly reduce their carbon footprint. This is an important milestone in the execution of our Destination Zero strategy as we work to reduce the impact of our products today while investing in clean power solutions for the future.”

Cummins officials touted the engine’s importance to the company during a visit to the Jamestown Engine Plant last year. More than half of medium- and heavy-duty trucks on the road in the United States use Cummins engines, with company officials hopeful the X15N takes on prominence in the company’s fuel-agnostic 15-liter engine platform.

Cummins bills the X15N as the industry’s first fuel-agnostic internal combustion engine platform that leverages a range of lower carbon fuel types. The fuel-agnostic architecture of the 15-liter platform utilizes a common base engine with cylinder heads and fuel systems specifically tailored for it to use carbon-free hydrogen or biogas with up to a 90% carbon reduction.

Rumsey said reaction to the full production of the X15N are already promising. Rumsey said during her remarks that several of North America’s largest heavy-duty fleets are actively engaged with Cummins following their own tests of the natural gas engine in the field. UPS has purchased 250 Kenworth X15N powered trucks.

“I mean we’ve said that we think we could get up to a potentially 8% share in the market with the natural gas product,” Rumsey said. “We had several big fleets that we’re testing it during development.And I noted the big order that UPS has placed. So how they start to ramp up volume, get increasing confidence in the strong performance and efficiency. Fundamentally, in most places, it can provide not only a reduction in CO2 for fleets that want to lower the CO2 footprint, but also reductions in operating costs because of the fuel price differential between natural gas and diesel.”

Third quarter revenues of $8.5 billion were flat to the same quarter in 2023. Sales in North America decreased 1% while international revenues increased 2%. Net income attributable to Cummins in the third quarter was $809 million, or $5.86 per diluted share, compared to $656 million, or $4.59 per diluted share, in 2023. The tax rate in the third quarter was 19.2% including $36 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, of favorable discrete tax items. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in the third quarter were $1.4 billion, or 16.4% of sales, compared to $1.2 billion, or 14.6% of sales, a year ago. Based on its current forecast, Cummins is maintaining its full-year 2024 revenue guidance to be in the range of down 3% to flat. EBITDA is expected to be approximately 15.5%; at the top end of the previous guidance of 15.0% to 15.5%.