Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) closed its $290 million acquisition of Canadian fuel cell and hydrogen production technologies provider Hydrogenics Corp.(NASDAQ: HYGS) on Monday, Sept. 9.
It is the second major investment in fuel cell technology for commercial vehicles in a week.
On Sept. 4, United Kingdom-based CNH Industrial announced it was investing $250 million in startup fuel cell truck maker Nikola Corp., which plans to commercially produce Class 8 heavy-duty trucks by the end of 2022. Nikola also disclosed Sept. 5 that Robert Bosch LLC and solar panel maker Hanwha Group had invested a combined $230 million.
“There’s a growing realization that there is a lot of value in fuel cells for heavy-duty trucks in certain types of applications,” Navigant Research principal analyst Sam Abuelsamid told FreightWaves. “The infrastructure challenge is a lot less of an issue with commercial vehicles because a lot of the applications are return to base or fixed routes.”
Best known for its industry leadership in diesel engines for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, Cummins has worked on hydrogen fuel cells for two decades.
