{"id":2164,"date":"2025-10-05T01:44:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T01:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tcap.blog\/?p=2164"},"modified":"2025-10-05T01:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T01:56:12","slug":"cummins-confidential-the-10-litre-lie-when-clean-diesel-means-more-of-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tcap.blog\/2025\/10\/05\/cummins-confidential-the-10-litre-lie-when-clean-diesel-means-more-of-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"Cummins Confidential : The 10-Litre Lie – When \u201cClean Diesel\u201d Means More of the Same"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Busworld 2025, Brussels. Cummins rolls in like it\u2019s 1999, peddling \u201cinnovation\u201d that still runs on diesel. The new 10-litre coach-optimised<\/em> X10 Euro VI engine – a lump of iron disguised as progress – was unveiled with the usual smirk about \u201ccleaner internal-combustion technology.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation: the same poison, slightly diluted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Engine That Time Forgot<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

A \u201cclean-sheet design,\u201d they say. More like a new napkin to wipe the same old spill. Ten litres of diesel in 2025 isn\u2019t forward thinking; it\u2019s necromancy. They call it lighter, quieter, sociable<\/em>. Because nothing says sociable like a 454-horsepower bus coughing up nitrogen oxide on the ring road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fuel economy up six to eight per cent. Great. So instead of drowning the planet, we\u2019re only waterboarding it. Efficiency theatre. Nothing changes except the press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The HELM\u2122 Shell Game<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cummins\u2019 new HELM\u2122 platform – supposedly modular and \u201cfuture-ready\u201d – is just a global cloning machine for fossil tech. One platform, a thousand excuses. Every region gets its own version of \u201ctransition.\u201d When Felipe Rocha, their European GM, calls it \u201ca straightforward step toward Euro 7,\u201d what he means is we\u2019re locking diesel in for yet another decade<\/em> – at least.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Euro VII: The Next Excuse<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Euro VI today, Euro VII tomorrow, and in every cycle the same promise: just one more upgrade, then we\u2019ll go green<\/em>. Cummins loves a deadline it can dodge. After years of emissions probes and \u201cdefeat-device\u201d whispers, simplicity suddenly matters: \u201cno EGR, simpler architecture.\u201d Less plumbing, fewer leaks, fewer trails for investigators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Green Gala, Black Smoke<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The PR sheet reads like a sustainability bingo card: clean, efficient, low-noise, modular<\/em>. They keep using that word clean<\/em> – it doesn\u2019t mean what they think it means. Europe\u2019s moving on with electric fleets and hydrogen retrofits, and Cummins is still polishing pistons. Busworld calls it \u201cthe future of clean transport.\u201d No, it\u2019s the past in drag.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meanwhile at Accelera<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Their \u201czero-emissions\u201d arm, Accelera, keeps bleeding cash while the diesel division throws parties. It\u2019s the split personality of the century: one hand preaching salvation, the other gripping a fuel nozzle. The X10 isn\u2019t innovation; it\u2019s denial on display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bottom Line<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cummins didn\u2019t broaden its Euro VI range – it narrowed its conscience. The X10 is another love letter to diesel wrapped in recycled paper. Progress, they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More like relapse.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sources<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n