Major Investment: New Line For Cummins, Plans For Buildings Drive Headlines In 2023 | News, Sports, Jobs

The Jamestown area is shaping up to become a key player in environmentally friendly transportation in the coming year.

As The Post-Journal reported nearly a year ago, Cummins Inc. will bring its fuel agnostic X15N engine line to its Jamestown Engine Plant in 2024 as part of a multi-year project that ends in 2026 while Electrovaya is expected to open its Gigafactory in the former Acu-Rite building in Ellicott this year as well. And, ammunition manufacturer ND Presstec is working to redevelop the former Truck-Lite plant into the newest of the manufacturer’s North American locations. Stories on all three businesses were among the most-read stories published by The Post-Journal throughout 2023.

A formal announcement of Cummins’ X15N engine line was made at the Jamestown Engine Plant in May. the fuel-agnostic engine that is driving a $452 million in investment at Cummins’ Jamestown Engine Plant. 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.

“The world is changing fast,” Srikanth Padmanabhan, Cummins vice president and Engine Business president, said during May’s event in Busti. “If we don’t move and stand still, I think we’re going to be left behind. That’s one. The second thing is Jamestown has always been a factory where they are responsive to needs. Once they say they are going to do something, they always do it at the time and in the quality levels and the cost targets that we set. Which is what makes us feel comfortable giving them stretch targets and they deliver what we ask them to deliver. I can’t be more pleased with what they’ve done.”

Shawn Hricko, director of operations at Cummins Inc. Jamestown Engine Plant, discusses the X15 engine line during a plant tour at Cummins earlier this year.
P-J photo by John Whittaker

A few thousand X15N engines have been made so far. Some of those engines have been sold to companies in China while testing has been taking place in the United States. This fall, Knight Transportation Inc., part of Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. and the industry’s largest full truckload company, tested the X15N natural gas engine in southern California — realizing nitrogen oxides and greenhouse gas reductions without compromise to performance, according to Cummins officials.Other clients that have been testing X15N engines include Walmart, Werner, Matheson, and National Ready Mix.

In August, PACCAR and Cummins jointly announced that the Cummins X15N natural gas engine will be used in new Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks. Cummins also has a memorandum of understanding with Tata Auto Group for hydrogen-fueled engines.

Cummins is investing $452 million to have the necessary equipment to upgrade the Jamestown Engine Plant’s 998,000 square-feet to produce 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.

“Not long ago I was here and this place was an old block and a headline that was there for the M11,” Padmanabhan said. “And it has been just really transformed. And I can’t wait to come in a year’s time to see the kinds of things that these folks are actually about to do.”

Electrovaya, an electric battery maker, is working to turn the former home of Acu-Rite Inc. in Ellicott into its Gigafactory. Company officials said earlier this year in a conference call with industry analysts that battery assembly at its new Ellicott Gigafactory will begin in the first quarter of 2024 with cell assembly beginning in the second quarter of 2025 as more of the plant’s renovation is completed.

Raj Dasgupta, chief executive officer of Electrovaya, is pictured.

The site will eventually produce Electrovaya’s Infinity line of lithium-ion ceramic batteries, including the company’s proprietary ceramic separators, cells, modules and battery systems. The company is expected to hire about 150 employees initially with the possibility of employing 250 employees when the plant is completed.

“Electrovaya is rapidly growing, and we will ultimately need additional capacity,” Raj Das Gupta, Electrovaya CEO, said in May. “This was one of the driving factors for our U.S. manufacturing expansion in Jamestown, New York. In March, we acquired the site at one Precision Way by purchasing the shares of Sustainable Energy Jamestown. We are also making good progress with respect to reaching an agreement with a government-backed finance institution to provide the necessary funding to outfit the first phase of our planned gigafactory. One of the requirements of this institution is to provide a detailed independent engineering review for which we have engaged with a leading engineering consultancy. Their initial analysis is well underway, and we expect to receive it later this month. The Jamestown gigafactory will be key in enabling Electrovaya to grow further and also access new incentives tied to the inflation Reduction Act.”

The Jamestown site has access to low cost renewable energy as agreed with the New York Power Authority. The site is well connected to transportation, has excellent room for expansion, and has close proximity to the company’s existing facilities in Ontario in addition to current and prospective customer manufacturing facilities.

“So ultimately, this facility will be over a gigawatt hour in capacity,” Das Gupta said during a conference call earlier this year. “That said, the first phase of the project, we’ll be looking at more like a third of that capacity because that’s what the existing building can handle, and that’s what we’re looking to finance in this first phase.”

There is also activity in the former Truck-Lite plant in Falconer.

Earlier this year, the Krog Group LLC of Orchard Park purchased the plant at 310 E. Elmwood Ave., Falconer, to house ND PressTec, a German company owned by the NAMMO Group that makes ammunition for small and medium calibers. At an estimated cost of $10 million, according to information provided at the August 2022 public hearing, the project was expected to create about 80 full-time jobs.