Rehlko focuses on flexible alternatives for decarbonization

Rehlko has seen its fair share of changes since the acquisition of Kohler Energy by Platinum Equity in May 2024 and the division’s subsequent rebranding in September of that year. With a new name and new head of its Engines business, the company continues to build upon its history as a global diesel and gasoline engine supplier to include hybrid and alternative fuel solutions up to 140 hp (112 kW).

Eric Fontaine had just celebrated his one-year anniversary as president of the Engines business when Power Progress sat down with him at ConExpo-Con/Agg 2026 in Las Vegas to get his perspective on the construction industry’s efforts to increase jobsite decarbonization.

The conversation covered diverse topics, from alternative fuels to artificial intelligence, yet as Fontaine pointed out, each has a potential influence on how the industry maintains efficiency, manages costs and reduces its carbon footprint.

In your perspective, what are the biggest challenges contractors are facing in their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, and what equipment-related solutions are they gravitating towards most?

Eric Fontaine, president, Engines, Rehlko. (Photo: Rehlko)

Decarbonization is a big topic within the industry, for sure, and rightfully so… I believe [the construction industry is responsible for] roughly 37% of CO2 emissions globally...

Certainly, companies like us are focused on solutions for our engines and for our customers. And I think as you look at it, there’s a number of options. There has been a path that’s has gone down towards hydrogen-type solutions, but that’s been really difficult for infrastructure reasons and the challenges that exist with that.

What we’re seeing within the industry is more towards what I call e-fuels or alternative fuels or low carbon fuels. In particular, one that [has] been out there for a little while now is HVO, or hydrotreated vegetable oil. For a lot of companies, those are drop-in replacements for diesel engines.

For Rehlko, our engines are designed for [HVO]. It is a really great way to get up to 90% reduction in your CO2 emissions. All of our diesel engines are compatible with HVO. So, it becomes a really nice solution – one you can implement right away, get the emissions reductions right away, no modifications required to the equipment or our engines. I think we’re going to see that grow with our customers.

What should both OEMs and contractors be looking at, and perhaps asking themselves, to ensure they’re choosing the right solutions that make sense for them to help achieve the greatest return on investment?

Return on investment is a big thing, especially in this industry. For us, when we look at it, we’re always interested in how… our engines are being used…

The high-power version of the KDI 1903TCR diesel engine was shown at ConExpo ahead of its upcoming U.S. market availability. (Photo: Rehlko)

We’re very proud of our engines and especially our electronic engines that are very sophisticated, that allow for better fuel management and fuel efficiency, longer maintenance cycles and, ultimately, overall better efficiency and longer uptime in the field… Reliability is such a big deal when you’re out in the field or out in the construction space, and you expect your engines to run for a really long time. So for us, that’s been a big focus…

Also, within the regulatory and compliance measures, we put a heavy focus on and leaned into that maybe even earlier than some other engine manufacturers to make sure that was an advantage for us. We knew that the industry is going to continue to bend that way.

What should they consider when exploring suppliers to help them achieve their decarbonization goals?

They should be looking for measurable outcomes from the beginning. A supplier that can deliver measurable outcomes is a real differentiator.

That’s going to come down to what kind of solutions do the suppliers have for them? Do they have access to alternative fuels and the ability to lower CO2 emissions? And just the overall efficiency of the equipment.

The long-term support is also a really big one… The other part that we’re seeing more and more of is going to be around data. How [can they] leverage intelligent monitoring solutions to help support customers out in the field?

Let’s talk about specific solutions that Rehlko has either developed or is working to develop for customers to help simplify the process.

Again, alternative fuels – that’s something that we have really [focused] on. We think that is a really good and effective way to [decarbonize]. There have been challenges, with the availability and maybe even the inconsistency around alternative fuels and what’s available.

Full electrification isn’t really that practical yet for medium- and heavy-duty type applications in construction… In some cases, the industry has leaned towards full electrification, which is an immediate elimination of CO2 emissions, versus e-fuels that you can use now in our engines [and they will] get you up to 90% CO2 emission reduction. No degradation in performance or capabilities of the product and you’re going to get those reductions.

How does total cost of ownership (TCO) play into the selection process when customers are looking at reducing their carbon footprint?

Total cost of ownership is a big deal and is something that we emphasize, especially in our sales structure when we’re meeting with customers to really go through and help them understand where we think we have an advantage as it pertains to fuel efficiency, longer maintenance cycles, greater uptime. We think those are really important things, especially if you think about some of our customers that are at very large construction sites, and those costs really add up...

The Command PRO 999 cc (41 hp) engine is the most powerful gasoline engine in the company’s portfolio. (Photo: Rehlko)

For us, it’s about… understanding what are their operational priorities? And then when we sit down with them, it’s understanding how often do they use the equipment, even idle time? Is it at altitude? What is the fuel consumption that’s on there? [It’s leveraging] our operation and engineering expertise to work with our customers to get a solution that works for them…

Something we’re proud of within Rehlko is our ability to be flexible with customers. Our engines aren’t necessarily a one size fits all. If we know those specific parameters that customers are looking for, and we understand those, we can tune the engines to deliver the performance and the CO2 emissions they’re looking for, and obviously the total cost of ownership, as well.

That customization, that flexibility really matters when you’re trying to find strategies that fit across the board for the customers.

How does increasing digitalization and specifically the use of artificial intelligence (AI) factor into the overall TCO equation?

I think AI is an interesting question. It comes up frequently in almost any industry and certainly in the construction industry… I think it’s going to start to make us a lot smarter in how we think about our solutions as we go forward.

So, the short answer is they’re a big deal [in terms of] total cost of ownership. As we think about AI, it’s really about how… can we be more efficient with our engines, and then how can we use data to help support a better and a more effective solution for our customers?

If you think about that equipment being connected out in the field, we can start to get real-time data to understand truly how [equipment] is being used. Because sometimes you’re being told how the equipment is being used in a more general sense, but it can vary by site, it can vary by piece of equipment. Having that very specific data over time is really going to help us be more efficient.

From the Rehlko perspective, we’re interested in investing in more intelligent monitoring type solutions, performance dashboards that can help our customers, and then [apply] that expertise for data analytics to help our customers really understand the engines to get the best solution for them.

What should we expect from Rehlko by the next Conexpo? How will the company evolve in the next three years or more?

First, I think in the next three years we’re going to see engine solutions that are more flexible, efficient and lower carbon. They’re going to be influenced by hybrid energy kind of ecosystems, not any one particular dominant solution, which will be interesting and important as we drive forward.

Power Progress Editor Becky Schultz with Eric Fontaine at ConExpo-Con/Agg 2026. (Photo: Rehlko)

For Rehlko, specifically, as we think about those topics, our focus over the next few years is going to be on the efficiency and effectiveness of our engines because it’s so vital. It’s going to be on more fuel alternatives and more options beyond HVO, which is a great fit for today, but there are other e-fuels that could be used – and having that compatibility as we go forward.

I think the third is going to be around this digital revolution with data and how we can leverage data on site in real time to be able to help our customers. That will be more through the use of intelligent monitoring tools. It will be more about us getting even closer to the customers and partnering with them so that we can leverage our engineering expertise to analyze the data, and give them the right solution on site so that they are getting the best performance [from] their engines, that they are getting uptime; there’s no unplanned downtime.

If you think about that, in a connected world, that’s a really big thing because otherwise it is unplanned and happens and you have to react. If we can have data that’s real time and connected, that’s going to allow us to get in front of those kinds of issues and make sure that everything’s handled more in a planned format.

As we start to look at the transition towards how we leverage AI, how we continue to focus on TCO and help our customers have the best solutions, I think a lot of the great opportunities are going to unfold in front of us. To me, that’s a really exciting part of where we’re heading and trying to drive the business.