We’re certainly seeing a shift in the automotive world and will most likely continue to see this shift going forward. What is this shift? The movement from gasoline and diesel powered engines to those that run on electricity or a hybrid form of the gasoline or diesel. As more companies are developing these powertrains much of this shift has come as the result of stricter emissions regulations and the legislation in some areas to help create more zero-emissions vehicles. We’ve seen this already with Volkswagen which has left the diesel market in the US and is already working on electric models that will be offered in the future.
It seems there is another company that is considering an already developing a change. One of the most well-known and respected manufacturers of large diesel engines has stated they will offer a different form of propulsion in the future. Cummins is preparing to offer is own version of a range-extended electric vehicle and plans to unveil it by the 202 model year in order to give us a look at what it may mean to have powerful hauling and moving models that are built to handle the load and get things done in the future.
Cummins will start with a fully electrified powertrain that will be on the road in some form by 2019, which gives us the notion that electrified powertrains are going to be part of the automotive world going forward. In 2020 the range-extended electric vehicle will be offered to give us a better idea of what Cummins has in store for us. The move toward commercial markets and having vehicles that are powered correctly to be able to offer lower to zero emissions and deliver the power that we need will most likely start with transit bus models.
The future for Cummins is not just as a diesel engine builder, but the application of what they create has to be able to be applied to the trucking industry in order to offer the way to drive and experience the road. Tom Linebarger, CEO of Cummins, has stated that this company is a technology company, although it’s one that’s much different from most that we see when we think of technology. The application of electrification to the market for vehicles that are going to get the big work done will be the future of what Cummins has to offer.
Once these systems are applied to the transit bus world it could easily be moved then to the pickup and delivery vehicles that haul small loads around large cities on a daily basis. These electric power plants may eventually find their way into every market that Cummins and other large engine building companies work in. The movement forward isn’t going to change the emissions and the drivetrains of the heavy trucks and equipment we see overnight, but it will change and eventually, all machines will likely be built with some form of an electric engine to help offer the power needed.