Cummins Westport Receives Orders for 80 Natural Gas Engines

VANCOUVER, Feb. 19 Cummins Westport Inc., a joint venture of Cummins Inc. of Columbus, Indiana and Westport Innovations Inc. of Vancouver, announced today that it has received two orders totalling 80 low-emissions C Gas Plus natural gas bus engines.

One order is for 64 engines for buses for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro). The other is for 16 engines for buses for Seattle Airport. The engines will be installed in new 40-foot transit buses manufactured by New Flyer of America of Crookston, Minnesota.

Delivery of the buses to Metro is scheduled to be completed by late summer. This represents a follow-on to an original order of 100 New Flyer buses with C Gas Plus engines for Metro announced last June. The local Cummins distributor involved with the Metro bus engine order is Cummins Power Systems of Baltimore, Maryland.

Delivery of the buses to Seattle Airport is expected in September. The new natural gas buses will be used to carry airport employees and will replace most of the 20 older diesel buses now in service. The local Cummins distributor involved in the order is Cummins Northwest, Inc. of Renton, Washington.

In Washington DC, the first 10 buses entered service on February 11, 2002. Commenting on the delivery, Washington Metro Board Chairman Christopher Zimmerman said, ``we are committed to being a leader when it comes to improving regional air quality. By its very nature, public transit keeps cars from our already clogged roadways, which means less automobile emissions. Metro is taking an important additional step by making sure that the buses that we put on the roadways are environmentally-friendly.''

Metro currently operates approximately 1,400 diesel buses and when all of the natural gas buses are in service, they will represent more than 10% of the fleet. ``With the launch of these new compressed natural gas buses, transit in our region is now cleaner than ever before,'' said Richard A. White, Metro CEO. ``All 164 CNG buses will replace our oldest and least environmentally friendly buses and will lower the average age of our fleet from 8.8 years to 7 years.''

Forty buses from Metro's original order have been placed in temporary service at the Salt Lake City Olympics. They will be returned to Metro by April 1 and placed into service later that month. ``The decision to use these buses at the Olympics sends an important message to the international community about the value of our clean natural gas engine technology,'' said Guff Muench, President of Cummins Westport.

Cummins Inc. is the world's largest manufacturer of commercial diesel engines above 50 horsepower. Westport Innovations is the leading developer of natural gas fuel systems for diesel engines. Cummins Westport Inc., formed in 2001, develops and markets low-emissions alternative fuel vehicle engines manufactured by Cummins. The C Gas Plus is manufactured for the joint venture at the Cummins engine factory in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.