Mumbai, 10 Aug 2017

The US-headquartered engine specialist Cummins Inc is setting up a R&D centre in Pune to cater to not just Indian customers but also the global market. The centre, which will be second largest R&D facility for the company outside the US, will involve investment of Rs 1000-1500 crores over a period of three years.

“Early next year, the new R&D centre will open in Pune. India, which accounts for about 20% of Cummins workforce, is one of the key markets for the company. The new centre will play an important role as Cummins gears up to develop next generation of engines that are more efficient, powerful, smaller and low on maintenance,” said Jennifer Rumsey, VP and Chief Technical Officer, Cummins Inc.

Cummins designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, filtration, and power generation products. In India, the major end-user industries for Cummins products are heavy & medium duty trucks, construction, mining, compressors, marine, rail, pumps, compression, oil & gas, defence, commercial & consumer power generation.

Globally, Cummins, a leader in diesel and natural gas driven powertrains, is developing electrified power systems for its commercial and industrial markets. The company expects to have a full production unit – a Cummins electrified powertrain system in a customer vehicle by 2019 and range extended electric vehicle in 2020.

“Electrification is coming to urban transportation and several other markets and Cummins will be the leading provider of electrified power-systems in our markets just as we are with diesel and natural gas driven powertrains,” said Srikanth Padmanabhan, President, Engine Business, Cummins Inc.

With the new R&D centre, Indian customers will gain faster asses to global technology as the demand for electric vehicles is like to witness a rise - especially with Indian government’s push for their use in public transport. Cummins also expects to gain from new vehicle emission norms, BS VI, which comes into effect from April 2020. India is probably only the country which is leapfrogging from BS IV to BS VI – by bypassing BS V stage.

“There is significant opportunity for us to serve customers as they need to meet emission norms of BS VI in India. We already have these technologies globally, which need to be tailored to meet the requirement of local market. We call them Fit to Market solutions,” opined Sandeep Sinha, COO, Cummins Group in India.