LORD BAMFORD

EVs are stealing the zero-emission limelight, but JCB's chairman is on a mission to prove that hydrogen has a place as a clean fuel for the future. Steve Cropley learns more

- Steve Cropley

Although his thriving global vehicle manufacturing business has never built a car in its 78-year history, Lord Anthony Bamford, owner and chairman of JCB, is proving to be a far more agile and effective researcher into hydrogen power for automotive applications than most of the world's volume manufacturers.

Bamford and a fast-growing band of specialist JCB engineers (150 at the last count) have designed and built a zero-emission, hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine in two and a half years flat. They plan to use it - and soon-to power the kind of construction and agricultural machinery JCB makes in more than 20 plants worldwide and sells through 2000 dealers.

The first serious discussions about a hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engine began in 2020 inside JCB's Rocester HQ - at the instigation of the chairman, who was worried about the future. The company has now built more than 50 running pre-production engines and installed them in stationary generators, in construction vehicles, on test beds and even in a truck. More hydrogen engines are being built right now on JCB's regular, 440-a-day engine lines (the hydrogen units have distinctive, green-coloured blocks), and potential clients around the world have heard the message and are ready to buy as soon as JCB believes it has successfully ironed out the pre-production problems. JCB has already produced an on-site hydrogen refueller and believes engine output could start as early as next year, if promised fuel supplies are available in enough markets.