Famous for developing and manufacturing diesel engines, Cummins has just rolled out its first gas power plant in over one hundred years. The Cummins B6.7 Octane gasoline power plant is designed to set in motion medium-duty trucks.
The Cummins name is synonymous with diesel power. The company has been in the business for over one hundred years without rolling out a single gasoline engine but a ton of iconic diesels. At some point, the Cummins N Series engines became the industry leader in the post-World War II market. In the United States, more than half of the heavy-duty trucks on the road were powered by Cummins engines.
The firm’s power plants set in motion trucks, semi-tractors, locomotives, school buses, construction equipment, ships, and generators. Furthermore, their engines found room under the hood of the Ram heavy-duty pickup trucks because that is what workhorses are fed on: diesel.
Fast forward to 2025, and the company sells engines to 190 countries worldwide through a network of over 600 distributors and around 7,200 dealers. But it wasn’t until now that Cummins offered a gasoline engine. With California leading the way in pulling the brakes on diesel by imposing ever-stricter emissions regulations, it was the right move to make, breathing new life into the commercial vehicles sector.
The manufacturer credits the new unit with the highest durability of any medium-duty gasoline engine on the market, claiming it was engineered to redefine the segment. The unit brings the easily serviceable and user-friendly qualities of gasoline engines and provides the performance of a diesel at a low cost of ownership due to longer maintenance intervals and improved fuel economy.
The B6.7 Octane is compliant with the 2027 EPA and CARB regulations. The engine is based on the iconic Cummins B6.7 platform and can produce up to 300 horsepower and 660 pound-feet of torque. Lower-output versions, such as 200 horsepower but with the same amount of torque, are also available.
The absence of the Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) and active regens on the move while sporting low-complexity air handling means the B6.7 Octane benefits from simplified maintenance and operation. Cummins claims it also offers up to 10% better fuel economy over other gas-powered engines, depending on the duty cycle.
The engine maker started developing the B6.7 Octane several years ago when it introduced the fuel-agnostic engine project, which was subsequently named Higher Efficiency, Lower Emissions, and Multiple Fuels or HELM.
Using the B6.7 6.7-liter inline-six diesel architecture, it runs on 87 octane gasoline, but there is no information about the actual fuel economy. The all-new gasoline engine is expected to launch with Kenworth in Class 5 to 7 trucks, powering the T180-T480 models before becoming available to other vehicles and applications.
With diesel, natural gas, hydrogen, propane, and gasoline offerings in its portfolio, the next move for Cummins will most likely be the electric drivetrain. We probably won’t wait over another one hundred years to see it on the road