In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order promising to eliminate what he labels “the electric vehicle mandate” imposed under former President Joe Biden. Trump’s order said he would “eliminate the electric vehicle (EV) mandate” and promote true consumer choice by removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access; by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for consumer choice in vehicles.” It’s unclear if the change in policy will affect federal grant programs that have already spent money on zero emissions buses being purchased by transportation authorities across the country – often from the NFI Group, which owns a manufacturing plant in Jamestown.

As The Post-Journal has reported for the past couple of years, Cummins Inc. is banking on its fuel agnostic X15N engine to both entice transportation companies with its real-world ability to meet more strict emissions regulations and provide the power trucking companies are looking for in new trucks. That engine is made at Cummins’ Jamestown Engine Plant located in Busti. The NFI Group is using the same strategy.

“There’s been no question of increased scrutiny on electric bus funding at the U.S. federal level, and this is something we are monitoring closely with the FTA and our industry groups,” said Paul Soubry, NFI Group president and CEO. “While this may result in a change to the models of our incoming orders, our propulsion agnostic approach of offering multiple propulsions helps offset those concerns. We can provide whatever products make sense for each of our customers. Generally, (internal combustion engine) production historically and currently has been less demanding and less complex to build than zero emissions, which provides an opportunity to increase throughput should we see a significant shift in model demand.”

Full production of the new X15N engine began in the middle of 2024 at Cummins Inc.’s Jamestown Engine Plant. Production of the X15N line was the impetus for a $452 million line upgrade at the Busti engine plant over the past year. 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.

Walmart employees look over an X15N engine — made at the Cummins Inc. Jamestown Engine Plant — during a 2023 trial run.

The North American truck market weakness isn’t dimming the company’s excitement over its HELM engine platforms that were introduced in 2024. Applied across Cummins’ B, X10 and X15-series engine portfolios, the HELM platforms provide customers with the option to choose the fuel type – either advanced diesel or alternate fuels like natural gas and hydrogen – that best suits their business needs and offers the power customers expect – while also reducing emissions.

Jennifer Rumsey, Cummins CEO, said in January the company is now working to sell the new Jamestown-made engine, engaging with many of North America’s heavy-duty fleet owners. How much the new engine impacts Cummins’ bottom line is somewhat out of the company’s hands, but Rumsey said initial feedback is good.

“The beauty of the HELM platform is it’s got that fuel flexibility,” Rumsey said during a conference call Tuesday with investor analysts. “And so the reality is we’re still going to sell a lot of the diesel version of that, and it will be a higher efficiency version, which means lower CO2 and lower fuel costs for our customers. We’ve set a goal of getting to 8% on the natural gas version of that. We’re starting to see customers adopt. PACCAR has launched it. Daimler Trucks will launch that 15-liter natural gas this year. Fleets are testing it. I was with a big customer last week. They’re finishing their field testing. They feel good about the product, and they’re looking to start to increase penetration, but it really depends on diesel fuel prices and regulation and customer CO2 goals. And so it’s hard to give specific numbers on the rate of natural gas or hydrogen adoption because of that dependency on infrastructure cost and regulation.”

Soubry is seeing a similar situation for NFI Group. The profit margin is less on a diesel bus than a zero emissions bus, Soubry said, but it’s easier to make a diesel bus than a zero emissions bus – meaning the impact on the company’s bottom line should be minimal for NFI Group.

“But our belief that having production lines that are agnostic and product portfolio that we can sell the same bus, whether it’s diesel, natural gas, electric, battery, fuel cell, whatever, that will prove very prominent,” Soubry said. “We have had many suppliers show up during the SPAC days that were just zero emission and couldn’t sustain production lines. And we have one competitor that’s pulled out of the U.S. Buy American market and has already made public statements that they’re only going to do ZEBs going forward. So I’ll go back to my statement. Mix may change. Margin per unit is different, but volume has the potential to increase.It has really no impact on our aftermarket business either because that is about supporting an installed fleet that’s already there.”