JCB’s Hydrogen Engine Wins Royal Automobile Club’s Dewar Trophy for Third Time
JCB’s hydrogen engine has won one of the oldest and most prestigious awards in British automotive engineering honoring technical achievement.
At a ceremony in London, JCB Chairman Lord Bamford was presented with the Royal Automobile Club’s Dewar Trophy for the company’s development of a hydrogen fuel motor. It is the third time that JCB’s innovations have been honored with the Dewar Trophy.
John Wood MBE, chairman of the Dewar Technical Committee, said: “JCB has been a pioneer in terms of powertrain development since it started building its own engines in 2004. That ethos has continued with its latest hydrogen-fueled engines, which are an inspiring combination of current expertise and next-generation technology.”
“We’re extremely proud that the Royal Automobile Club has chosen to present JCB with the Dewar Trophy for the third time,” said Lord Anthony Bamford. “Our new hydrogen-fueled engines can be put into production relatively quickly and it’s an important and pioneering step towards a zero-carbon future, and testament to the amazing abilities of our British engineers.”
JCB’s purpose-engineered zero CO² hydrogen fuel motor was designed after a challenge to the company’s engineers from Lord Bamford. The newly designed motor harnesses JCB’s existing expertise and supply chain infrastructure. The company is investing £100 million in the project and has two prototype hydrogen-fueled machines on test: a backhoe loader and a Loadall telescopic handler. Presented to the club in 1904 by Sir Thomas Dewar MP, and since 1957, the Dewar Trophy has been presented in recognition of ‘an outstanding British technical achievement in the automotive field during the preceding year.’ In 2019 JCB was recognized for the launch of the 19C-1E electric mini excavator. In 2007, JCB won the Dewar Trophy after the JCB Dieselmax team set a diesel-powered Land Speed Record of 350.092 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
JCB is the world’s largest privately-owned manufacturer of construction, agricultural and defense equipment. At 22 plants spanning four continents—and countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, India, and Brazil—JCB manufactures a range of more than 300 products including Loadall telescopic handlers, backhoe loaders, excavators, wheel loaders, compact excavators, skid steer loaders, compact track loaders, Access aerial work platforms, rough terrain forklifts, and Fastrac tractors. For more information, visit www.jcb.com
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.