Cummins announces Euro VI engine line-up

In Columbus Indiana, on a cold February 3rd morning, back in 1919, Clessie Cummins and William Irwin founded the Cummins Engine Company. In 2019, 100 years later, the global company’s HQ is still in the picturesque town of Columbus.

In 1919, Clessie Cummins was convinced that Rudolph Diesel’s engine concept would be the hard-working powerplant of the future. Although electrification looms on today’s horizon, the diesel engine is still the mainstay of road transport.

For the past 100 years, Cummins has been at the forefront of diesel engine design and the latest developments of that technological expertise were on display at the Brisbane Truck Show.

Melbourne-based Cummins South Pacific has been quietly evaluating Euro VI engines in Australia over the past 18 months. In that period, top of the range X15 Euro VI engines have clocked up more than three million kilometres, hauling single trailer, B-Double and road train rigs.

Thankfully, Cummins has been able to meet stringent Euro VI emissions standards without the need for exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) that has proved troublesome in the past.

Reduced emissions start with Cummins’ extreme pressure injection (XPI) system that reduces noise and improves combustion efficiency and fuel economy. A simple, standard wastegate turbocharger is also a feature.

The Cummins Euro VI lineup employs only selective catalytic reduction (SCR), using AdBlue and a diesel particulate filter (DPF) in a single housing. This Single Module Technology is said to be more compact, lighter and stronger than separate-module designs.

The X15 is planned for release in two configurations: Efficiency and Performance. These variants have different hardware and software, as well as optimised compression ratios and air handling.

The X15 Performance engine is to be rated at 525-625hp, with peak torque of1850-2050lb ft and the X15 Efficiency is to be rated at 460-550hp, with peak torque of 1650-2050lb ft.

A special Efficiency rating is a 550hp X15, with 1850-2050lb ft of torque – previously the domain of 600hp engines – that’s intended for engine down-speeding, without performance and trip-time compromises.

That engine variant is intended for mating with Eaton’s UltraShift Plus 18-speed automated manual transmission.

The Euro VI X12 weighs around 900kg and has peak output of 500hp and 1700lb ft of torque, giving it the highest power-to-weight ratio of any engine in the 10-16-litre class, Cummins claims.

The display engine was coupled to an Eaton-Cummins Endurant 12-speed automated manual transmission; the first product of the joint Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies business.

The 12-litre engine has been on test in Australia since 2015 and is already being offered in some bus and coach chassis in Australia.

Cummins is negotiating with truck makers for release in selected Australian-market chassis in 2020, but that could be a tough call, given that several of them have in-house engines with that cubic capacity.

Those of us with plenty of grey hair – or none – can remember when the US truck market was dominated by independent engine, transmission and axle makers, but Cummins is the sole survivor.

To survive in what is now almost a totally vertically integrated global truck scene, where most truck makers produce their own powertrains in house, Cummins must be doing something right.