Columbus, IN-based Cummins is gearing up to build a 13-liter heavy truck engine line in China through a 50-50 joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Co. The 13-liter displacement will be the first offering of its kind and will meet all global emission standards, Cummins said.
The fully electronic engine is expected to be ready for production in 2009 and will produce between 400 to 545 hp. It is being designed for heavy-duty trucks above 40 tons gross weight. Cummins added that these Chinese truck engines would be capable of meeting future emission standards in global heavy-duty markets.
Cummins Engine Business president Jim Kelly noted that this development agreement marks a departure from the traditional joint venture model in China. Typically Chinese joint venture partners import existing product technology from their international partners, using that technology as the basis for manufacturing products to meet the China market. Cummins also noted that this is first time that a Cummins heavy-duty engine platform is being developed outside the U.S.
“Cummins does not currently have a product in this displacement range and this new platform is designed to take advantage of the expected strong growth in demand at the higher end of the heavy-duty tuck market in China over the next several years,” Kelly said. “The engine platform also is being designed so that it can be readily modified to meet future U.S. EPA and Euro IV/V emission standards.”
Initial development work on the engine platform has started at the Cummins Technical Center in Columbus, IN, he added, and would be shared with the Cummins East Asia Research and Development Center in Wuhan, China, when the center opens in the third quarter of 2006. The Cummins East Asia center is a joint venture between Cummins and DCEC.
The Cummins-Dongfeng relationship dates back nearly 20 years and they formed their joint venture in 1996. DCEC currently makes Cummins ISB, ISC and ISL mid-range engines (3.9 to 9 liters) and is in the midst of an expansion that will increase capacity from 160,000 to 200,000 engines a year in 2007. The two companies also are partners in a filter manufacturing plant in Shanghai.
