New Autocar DC-64R features Cummins engines

Cummins Inc.’s latest heavy-duty platform X12 engine will be powering the new conventional truck from Hagerstown, Indiana-based Autocar, the Autocar DC-64R, which specializes in severe-duty refuse applications. Cummins, based in Columbus, Indiana, says the X12 is a light heavy-duty engine with a high power-to-weight ratio designed to meet the needs of vocational customers.

“With its best-in-class power-to-weight ratio, the X12 engine is proving to be well suited for the needs of the refuse market as well as other weight sensitive vocational applications,” says Brett Merrit, the vice president of Cummins’ on-highway engine business division. “Autocar’s entry into the conventional refuse market, as well as other construction applications, will allow customers to have the power of choice in these segments.”

Cummins says Autocar’s integration of the X12 delivers reduced operating costs due to extended maintenance intervals, 25 percent fewer parts and a 6 percent improvement in fuel economy achieved through enhanced engine efficiency and reduction of parasitic loss. The savings from reduced fuel and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) consumption plus reduced scheduled maintenance equates to more than $25,000 over the life of a typical garbage truck, Cummins says.

Autocar was the first refuse truck manufacturer to use the X12 engine, which weighs 2,050 pounds. Delivering up to 500 horsepower and 1,700 pounds per foot of torque, the X12 has the highest power-to-weight ratio of any comparable engine in the market, Cummins says. The Autocar DC-64R is also available with the Cummins L9 diesel engine, with ratings up to 380 horsepower, and the compressed natural gas (CNG)-fueled Cummins Westport ISX12N engine.

“Everything about this truck is designed to solve problems our customers have and achieve our goal of ‘Always Up,’” says Eric Schwartz, the Autocar managing director. “There are so many other innovations, from the engines up to 500 horsepower that are hundreds of pounds lighter to a real breakthrough in body integration. This truck is just revolutionary in the ways it will help waste haulers serve their customers and create [return on investment].”

Designed with vocational customers in mind, Cummins says the X12 displays the company’s efforts to bring innovation to weight-sensitive applications. 

“Built around improved uptime and reliability, the X12 will be in prime position to support Autocar’s vision of ‘Always Up,’” Merritt says.

Autocar is accepting orders now for the DC-64R, with the X12 and L9 diesel engines for production starting in late summer 2019 and the ISX12N CNG engine for production beginning in January 2020.