FPT Industrial, 2024 and the IAA

Italy – With IAA Transportation event in Hanover, Germany happening this week (September 17-22), a company that is hoping to make a splash is Italian powertrain manufacturer FPT Industrial (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Iveco Group). Having recently taken a tour of the new ePowertrain factory in Turin and written a feature article on the zero-emission powertrain segment, we thought it only right to examine the internal combustion engine side of the business. This, after all, was how the company established itself as a significant manufacturer of Commercial Vehicle (CV) powertrains.

The company continues to come into its own, featuring as an independent exhibitor at Busworld Europe 2023, ACT 2024 and Lat.Bus/Transpúblico 2024 in São Paulo, Brazil, we examine FPT Industrial’s product portfolio (Diesel + Natural Gas engines) and its strategy to expand its non-captive (i.e. non Iveco) customer base. To gain a better understanding of these plans, Truck & Bus Builder (T&BB) interviewed Andrea Abbà, On-Road Product Marketing and Portfolio Manager at FPT Industrial.

Andrea Abbà, On-Road Product Marketing and Portfolio Manager at FPT Industrial.

Diesel engines

The company has a complete lineup of diesel engines (2-13 litres) in three engine families (F1, NEF and Cursor). The F1 Diesel (2/2.3 and 3L) is dedicated to light commercial vehicles, vans and minibuses. The NEF family includes the 4.5 and 6.7-litre 4-cylinder and 6-cylinder engines designed for medium-duty trucks. Finally, the Cursor engines (9,11 and 13L) are used for heavy-duty trucks, city/intercity buses and coaches.

Cursor 13 engine

The company has a worldwide manufacturing footprint in Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina and China (joint venture). Around 500,000 internal combustion engines are produced a year with 65% going to non-captive customers. 50% of that is for on-road applications (truck and bus). 100,000 gas engines were produced up to now in the last 25 years. Prominent customers include Tata Daewoo, Fuso (LCV), Volkswagen Latin America as well as many Chinese (Golden Dragon) and Turkish bus builders (Karsan, Anadolu Isuzu and Temsa).

FPT Industrial’s new multi-fuel engines

FPT Industrial displayed two new engines at Fenatran 2022, the multi-fuel XCURSOR 13, the incarnation of the Cursor X concept: and the new NEF N67 natural gas version. The XCURSOR 13 is the evolution of the current Cursor 13, and FPT Industrial's first engine with a multi-fuel platform produced in Bourbon-Lancy, Burgundy, France. The range extends from diesel to natural gas – including biomethane, hydrogen and renewable fuels. This engine, according to Abbà, is marketed as a potential contributor towards fleets reaching their targets to reduce CO2.   

FPT Industrial Fenatran 2022 stand

The portfolio of innovations and sustainable technologies presented at Fenatran 2022 was just one piece of evidence of how FPT Industrial has been embracing the challenge of evolving from a carbon-based economy to a new sustainable circular economy, confirming the Brand commitment to the goal of achieving net zero by 2040.

Natural gas

The NEF N67 natural gas engine, which is already used and fitted into the New Holland T6 Methane Power – a biomethane-powered agricultural tractor –is now available for both truck and bus applications. The NEF family is now produced at the Turin plant. FPT Industrial has said that the N67 NG for commercial vehicles delivers the same performance as a diesel equivalent and is also compatible with LNG, CNG and biomethane, achieving up to 280 hp and 1,000 Nm of torque.

Expanding the topic on the whole natural gas engines portfolio, Abbà claims FPT Industrial has the widest lineup on the market, having serviced this market for 25 years. The company offers natural gas engines (3 to 13 litres) serving the light, medium and heavy-duty segments with customers in Europe, India, Asia and South America. In 2022, FPT acquired a minority stake in Blue Energy Commercial Vehicles Private Ltd (Blue Energy Motors), an LNG truck manufacturing company headquartered in Pune, India. FPT provides the motor for Blue Energy Motors, which launched its first heavy-duty liquified natural gas (LNG) truck at its recently inaugurated plant in Chakan in 2022.

Blue Energy LNG-powered trucks

The following year, the two-year-old start-up manufactured its 100th LNG truck (the BE 5528+). According to the company, the truck has been popular in the Indian cement and steel sectors and, with 280 horsepower and 1000 Nm of torque, it is claimed to be the most powerful liquified natural gas truck on the Indian market. This is in large part due to the multipoint stoichiometric combustion engine technology from FPT Industrial, which delivers quieter and more powerful operation than conventional fuel-powered trucks. Abbà said that orders continue to grow year on year.

Euro VII

Whilst many engine producers are looking to wind down their ICE engine manufacturing footprint, FPT Industrial is undertaking a dual-track strategy by investing in both ICE (developing more sustainable ICE engines) as well as battery-electric zero-emission powertrains (e-propulsion and battery storage solutions) for the electric CV market. The company will therefore continue to produce internal combustion engines as the company senses that this could be an opportunity to gain market share. As the CV industry slowly moves to zero-emission transportation, Abbà believes both technologies will coexist, depending on the mission and the customer requirements. For door-to-door on an urban mission, the electrification will have the majority of the market due to set routes and returning to base in order to charge overnight. Many in the industry believe that in the heavy-duty long-haul truck segment, the future will be hydrogen combustion. FPT Industrial is currently developing a hydrogen combustion engine to service a future potential market as truck OEMs such as Volvo and MAN have announced plans to build H2 ICE trucks in the future.

2024/2025 will be a significant period for the company, which is working on developing new customer relationships both in Europe as well as on a global level. Abbà explained that FPT Industrial’s unique selling point (USP) is its years of powertrain development and integration, priding itself on its “reliability, performance and quality”.

FPT Industrial Customer Service Academy

Investments

The company recently opened a 30,000-square-foot customer service area at its facility in Turin. The facility houses a diagnostics lab and tear-down area with staff responsible for training service engineers on product maintenance and repair, remote diagnostics and usage optimisation. This space will also be used to introduce new products to customers, distributors and students. The company states that over 300 technicians are enrolled for the Advanced Technical Training course which features about 5,000 training delivered to students and five levels of training certification which can be accessed in person or remotely thanks to the state-of-the-art technology installed at the centre.

Leonardo Zecchini, Head of Customer & Product Support and Digital at FPT Industrial said: “We created this area to bring together theory and practice, seamlessly and in a single location, for our training and development activities. creating a life-long-learning and continuous improvement pathway which must act as a quality multiplier for our Customer Service”.

Leonardo Zecchini, Head of Customer & Product Support and Digital at FPT Industrial