Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) and Cummins announced Monday availability of the industry’s first 15-liter natural gas engine in the fifth-generation Freightliner Cascadia.
The companies state the offering comes eight months after Cummins began full production of the X15N, marking the first of the Cummins HELM engine platforms. Each HELM platform engine model offered is specifically built and optimized to run on a specific fuel type, such as natural gas, diesel or hydrogen to meet customers’ needs.
"Natural gas trucks are becoming increasingly important for on-highway freight transportation," says Greg Treinen, vice president of on-highway market development at DTNA. "The Cummins X15N is the first natural gas engine purpose-designed with the power and torque needed for over-the-road customers. As we continue to offer innovative solutions, we’re proud to include this engine as a powertrain option for the fifth-generation Freightliner Cascadia, meeting the needs of both our existing and new natural gas customers with a reliable, sustainable solution for their evolving demands."
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Production of the fifth-generation Cascadia with the X15N will begin this summer. The engine will be available for the 126-in., bumper-to-back-of-cab (BBC) Cascadia in both sleeper and day cab configurations. Additionally, optional frame drilling prep configurations for frame-mounted and back-of-cab-mounted CNG fuel tanks (compressed natural gas) will be offered to support customer range needs, the companies say.
"The X15N opens up natural gas to a new customer base and many existing natural gas customers are enjoying the additional power and torque available in the new big bore engine. The offering with Freightliner will bring more choice to the market as additional fleets look to add natural gas to their lineups," says Lyndon Jones, vice president, Engine Business North American Sales & Customer Support at Cummins.
The X15N is certified at 50mg NOx and was built specifically as a natural gas engine. The X15N features up to a 10% improvement in fuel economy over Cummins’ 12-liter natural gas engine with similar rating and duty cycle, the company says. The X15N also delivers the performance, durability and power required in a variety of heavy-duty and vocational applications and is an excellent alternative for fleets looking to significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
Additionally, the engine can be paired with other Cummins powertrain components to deliver optimized features that further improve emissions beyond what the engine can do on its own, the companies state.
