Engine maker with deep ties in Rocky Mount commits $580 million to local plant
The diesel engine maker Cummins will invest more than half a billion dollars to upgrade its decades-old Rocky Mount factory, a commitment the company says aligns with its long-term goal to eliminate emissions.
The $580 million project will add up to 80 jobs at the Rocky Mount Engine Plant, which is already one of Nash County’s largest employers with more than 2,000 employees. It opened in 1983 and operated under the name Consolidated Diesel Company until 2008 when Cummins bought out its partner, Case Corp. In May, the plant celebrated producing its five millionth engine.
“Last year was our 40th year in operation,” plant manager Steve Pinkston told the Nash County Board of Commissioners on Monday. “With this investment, we expect another 40 years in the same area.”
At Monday’s board meeting, Nash County approved economic incentives for Cummins. The company will receive 50% of the net increase of ad volerem taxes from its expansion and capital investments between 2026 and 2032. The county estimates this incentive will be worth more than $7 million.
Cummins has deep ties in Rocky Mount, a city of 54,000 that straddles Nash County’s eastern border. Nash County Commissioner Sue Leggett noted her father worked for the company and that she herself interned there one summer.
“I probably wouldn’t be a resident of Nash County if it wasn’t for Cummins,” she said.
Board Chairman Robbie Davis called the company’s $580 million commitment “one of the largest ones we’ve had.”
Founded in 1919, the Indiana-based Cummins manufacturers engines for trucks, buses and other vehicles. The company, which has roughly 73,600 employees in total, said upgrading the Rocky Mount Engine Plant will help toward its Destination Zero pledge to have zero emissions across its products by 2050.
To help decarbonatization, Cummins last year introduced a fuel-agnostic platform that includes natural gas and hydrogen as well as advanced diesel engines.
