FPT Industrial, the Iveco Group brand dedicated to the design, production and sale of low-environmental impact powertrains, is celebrating an impressive milestone: the production of its 100,000th natural gas (NG) engine. This landmark achievement took place at the brand’s state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Bourbon-Lancy, France, home of its large engine manufacturing operations.
With origins dating back to 1874, the Bourbon-Lancy production facility is today a circa 1,200-employee plant offering the highest levels of quality and productivity. Producing the industry-renowned heavy range of NG engines since 1997, the plant attained World Class Manufacturing Gold Level in 2021, the highest possible classification for excellence of operations. In 2022, it moved into the DOT (Driving Operations Together), a results-oriented program that seeks to optimize operations worldwide. The program ensures high levels of safety and quality, improving the entire Brand’s operations and helping to successfully deliver targets and inspire a new culture of excellence. The Bourbon-Lancy production facility became one of the first “Advanced Mentor” plants of the program.
The facility is also known for its commitment to sustainability by minimizing the impact of its industrial activities and protecting the biodiversity of the surrounding environment. It is therefore the perfect home for the industry’s most successful NG-powered engines.
The 100,000th NG engine is an XCURSOR 13 NG model for the truck market. This multi-fuel, single-base engine offers best-in-class power, torque and braking power. Moreover, the XCURSOR 13 NG (launched in 2024) offers an 8% reduction in CO2 emissions over the previous-generation 13-liter engine, alongside high reliability and a lifetime of up to 1,200,000 km. The engine was developed using the WPI (Workplace Integration) approach to ensure a product of the highest quality. Since the introduction of the Cursor NG family in 2004, the plant has produced over 45,000 engines (8-9-13-liter models).
Vincent Barbosa, Plant Manager at the Bourbon-Lancy production facility, stated: “This monumental milestone results from the combination of many factors: industry-leading engine design to meet market demand, excellence in production engineering to facilitate efficient build, and the commitment of our motivated workforce to meet output schedules and maintain customer satisfaction. Together, these strengths demonstrate that we can achieve impressive goals in the pursuit of satisfying the industry’s need for low-environmental impact powertrains.”
Natural Gas is one of several alternative propulsion technologies available from FPT Industrial. This eco-friendly fuel reduces pollutants to provide a significant improvement in air quality, while mitigating global warming with its reduced CO2 emissions. Complementing these eco-benefits are the incredibly effective noise reduction and impressive fuel economy associated with multipoint stoichiometric combustion technology.
FPT Industrial today offers the widest NG engine range available on the market, providing solutions from 136 to 520 hp for light, medium and heavy vehicles in the on-road segment, and from 100 to 266 hp for off-road machinery.