this nearly 10-meter hydrogen car wants to be the world’s fastest zero-emissions vehicle

JCB’s hydrogen-powered Hydromax chases 350 mph

JCB is taking hydrogen power to the Bonneville Salt Flats with Hydromax, a long, low land speed car built to chase 350 mph across the Utah desert. Better known for its yellow excavators and construction machines, the British company is now putting its hydrogen combustion technology into a very different kind of vehicle: a record-seeking, racer with 1,600 horsepower, two engines, and fighter pilot Andy Green behind the wheel.

Andy Green is the fastest man on earth at 763.035mph and the only person to break the sound barrier on land. In 2006, he drove JCB’s Dieselmax to 350.092 mph, setting the diesel land speed record in a car that translated industrial engine technology into pure speed. Hydromax picks up that thread with hydrogen to turn the company’s work on low-carbon construction equipment into something sleeker, faster, and far more dramatic.

images © JCB

from construction sites to salt flats

Hydromax runs on two hydrogen combustion engines developed by JCB, each producing 800 horsepower. They are based on the same engine family the company has been developing for excavators, where hydrogen combustion could offer a practical alternative to battery-electric systems in heavy machinery. For job sites, the appeal is fast refueling, long operating hours, and the ability to keep large machines working without huge battery packs.

On the salt, that engineering story becomes much more visceral. The car stretches thirty-two feet (nearly ten meters) in length, with a narrow body shaped for stability at extreme speed. At 350 mph, every detail matters. Airflow, tire contact, cooling, drivetrain layout, and camera visibility all become part of the same problem: how to keep a hydrogen-powered machine calm while it crosses a shifting white surface faster than most aircraft take off.

JCB’s Hydromax is built to chase 350 mph on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats

a 1,600-horsepower argument for hydrogen combustion

The project is more than a stunt, though it definitely knows how to get attention. JCB has spent years and around £100 million developing hydrogen combustion engines, aiming to use them in the kinds of machines that dig, lift, load, and work for long hours in demanding conditions. Hydromax takes that same thinking and turns the volume all the way up.

The target is ambitious. JCB wants Hydromax to pass 350 mph, which would put it far beyond the current hydrogen internal combustion land speed record of 187.62 mph, set by BMW’s H2R prototype. It would also surpass the 303 mph mark achieved by Ohio State University’s fuel-cell Buckeye Bullet 2.

the 32 foot-long body is shaped for stability at extreme speed

why JCB is chasing speed

Hydromax is treating the Bonneville Salt Flats as a testing ground, a billboard, and an engineering stage at once. Instead of explaining hydrogen combustion through a spec sheet, JCB is sending it across the desert at supercar-shaming speed.

The timing also says a lot about where mobility conversations are heading. Battery-electric power dominates much of the clean transport debate, but JCB is making a case for another route in heavy machinery. This August, the company will see whether its excavator-derived hydrogen engines can make history on the salt.

the hydrogen-powered racer is driven by two JCB combustion engines

Andy Green says: ‘Twenty years ago, JCB took two of its diesel engines, sprinkled some magic engineering dust on them and put them into a racing car. We raced the JCB Dieselmax up to an astonishing speed — and a new FIA world record — of just over 350 mph. Today, that car is still the fastest diesel-engined vehicle in history. Now we’re going back to the Bonneville Salt Flats, spiritual home of the World Land Speed Record, with JCB’s new hydrogen engines.

‘The ‘JCB Hydromax’ car is lighter, more powerful and faster than its predecessor of 20 years ago. Once again, we’re going to show the world just how good British engineering and technology really is. This August we’re going to smash the hydrogen-powered vehicle record in the world’s fastest (and most exciting!) zero-emissions vehicle. I can’t wait.‘