Cummins Confidential : X10, Rental Power, And The Same Old Diesel Gospel

Cummins has unveiled the X10 at World of Concrete and called it a “clear path forward”. Translation: the next emissions era is coming, so here’s a fresh haircut on the same old combustion habit. They even published the release with an “Empty heading”. Fitting.

Diesel With A Fresh Haircut

Cummins wants you to picture hard hats, honest graft, jobsite grit. Concrete mixers. Dumps. Refuse trucks. Utility fleets. Real work.

Then it sprinkles corporate glitter on top and calls it leadership.

The headline act is the X10, a 10-litre “mid-bore” engine pitched as heavy-duty performance “without unnecessary complexity”. That is Cummins-speak for: we know the rules are tightening, please keep buying diesel while we pretend this is progress.

And because no modern Cummins announcement is complete without a side hustle, they dragged along a rental genset portfolio like a booze trolley at a wake. Temporary power. Permanent dependency.

2027 Compliance As A Sales Pitch

The release is obsessed with “upcoming 2027 emissions requirements”. You can feel the anxiety sweating through the adjectives.

This is what Cummins does best. Turn regulation into a marketing hook. Frame compliance as innovation. Sell survival as strategy.

They are not showing you a moral pivot. They are showing you a product roadmap designed to keep the diesel cash register ringing while the world argues about air and lungs and dead zones.

And yes, this is the same Cummins that had to swallow a record Clean Air Act settlement over emissions cheating. So when they say “next emissions era”, they are not exactly speaking from a position of saintly credibility.

The X10: Mid-Bore Muscle, Full-Bore Spin

Here’s the pitch.

The X10 is built on the “legacy” of the L9 and X12. It offers up to 2% improved fuel economy. It is “compact” and “efficient” and “durable” and “engineered” and whatever else they can throw in the blender to make diesel sound like kale.

They want fleets to “prepare now”. They want OEMs to “position” themselves. They want everybody nodding politely while they slide the invoice across the table.

What they do not want is anyone saying the quiet part out loud.

This is not a leap forward. It is a reshuffle of the same deck. A tighter package of the same habit, sold as a heroic bridge to the future.

Rental Power: Temporary Gigs, Permanent Diesel

Then they pivot to rental power solutions, because nothing screams “Destination Zero” like a diesel generator hooked up to a jobsite like an IV drip.

They brag about a portfolio from 12 kW to 1000 kW, aimed at construction, industrial, infrastructure, events. Everything, everywhere, all at once, as long as it needs power and nobody asks awkward questions about emissions at ground level.

The sales patter is predictable: “reliable” and “scalable” and “certainty with confidence”. That last one is not even a phrase. It is just two buzzwords having sex behind the bins.

The reality is simpler. Rental power is the perfect business. Nobody buys it because they want to. They buy it because something is broken, or temporary, or fragile. Cummins does not fix the fragility. It monetises it.

C12D6RE: Tier 4 Final, Tier 0 Shame

They introduce the C12D6RE and call it “quiet, efficient performance in a small footprint”. Tier 4 Final certified. Extended run time. Simplified diagnostics. A three-year warranty. Lovely.

And again, the trick is the framing.

They talk about “supporting demanding construction environments” like the environment is just background scenery. Like air is optional. Like compliance is a halo you can rent by the week.

It is always the same routine. Cummins sells the machine. The customer sells the story. The investor sells themselves a bedtime lie about ethics. The public inhales whatever is left.

Power To Build Community: A Forum For Keeping You Loyal

Then comes the new little velvet rope called “Power to Build Community”. An exclusive online forum for body builders and upfitters to integrate engines, hardware, software. Direct access to experts. Specs. Guidance. Support.

On paper, it’s helpful.

In practice, it’s also a leash.

Because once your whole workflow is built around Cummins architecture and Cummins advice and Cummins “integration support”, it gets harder to leave. Harder to challenge. Harder to say “actually this whole thing is a dirty dead end”.

It is community, sure. The way a spider’s web is housing.

The Judgment

Cummins is not “advancing” anything. It is preserving a business model.

The X10 is not a moral turning point. It is diesel continuity dressed up as inevitability.

Rental power is not resilience. It is dependence with a service plan.

And the funniest part is the straight face. The proud booth at World of Concrete. The slogans. The certainty.

Same old Cummins. Same old smoke. New badge. New brochure. Empty heading.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project