An electric vehicle is fine for a commute, but to power the huge trains, trucks and ships that move the global economy, hydrogen, heavy-duty batteries and cleaner fuels are the ticket. Cummins, a century-old maker of dirty diesels, is leading the charge.
“Teslas won’t drive our economy,” he says. “They’ll drive rich people.” Cummins is thriving precisely because it has been adept at meeting the ever more demanding environmental rules imposed on diesel engines. And when the day comes for battery-powered or hydrogen-fueled trucks to displace diesel entirely, Linebarger will be ready.
The environmental challenges of diesel are considerable. Besides carbon dioxide, the fuel emits black soot, a cause of heart and lung disease, and precursors to smog and acid rain. California is demanding that by 2024 commercial fleets begin replacing diesel trucks with zero-emission models. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency intends to phase in stricter requirements for heavy trucks starting with 2027 models.
Good public schools helped Linebarger get into Claremont McKenna College and Stanford, where he earned undergraduate degrees in management and mechanical engineering. He took an internship at Cummins while completing a combined M.B.A. and master’s degree in manufacturing science at Stanford. “I wanted to build companies, not finance them,” he says.
With advances in battery packs and offerings for lighter commercial vehicles, fleet operators are “getting their head around last-mile trucks” but are concerned about replacing diesel systems in semis and heavy-duty trucks, Davis said while she and Linebarger were in Scotland for the climate-change conference in November. Cummins customers have concerns that battery-only systems—like Musk’s planned semis that go up to 500 miles—aren’t realistic.
“I look at decarbonization and say that’s a growth opportunity for Cummins, because now innovation is going to matter a lot.”Cummins reported sales from the New Power of $116 million last year. That number is a fraction of total company revenue but greater than the combined sales of commercial EV makers Rivian, Arrival and Nikola, which are just starting fleet deliveries.