JCB has made another breakthrough in proving the wider usage of hydrogen combustion technology by successfully installing a hydrogen engine into a Mercedes Springer van marking an advancement in the utilization of sustainable energy for vehicles. The van was retrofitted in just two weeks and is the second Mercedes vehicle to be modified with a JCB hydrogen engine; earlier this year a 7.5-ton Mercedes truck was outfitted with a JCB hydrogen engine. The internal combustion engine used in the van is the same as those already powering the JCB construction and agricultural prototype machines.
One of the first test drivers was JCB chairman Anthony Bamford, who is leading the company’s 100 million hydrogen engine project.
“We retrofitted this vehicle with a JCB hydrogen engine to demonstrate how simple it will be to convert existing vans and to show that it is not only construction and agricultural machines that can be powered by hydrogen,” said Lord Bamford. “While converting vans will not be for JCB to do, it does prove there is something else other than batteries that can work very effectively.”
JCB has already manufactured more than 70 hydrogen internal combustion engines in a project involving 150 British engineers. The hydrogen engines now power prototype JCB backhoe loader and Loadall telescopic handler machines. The converted van was previously diesel powered. The switch to hydrogen is a breakthrough that underlines that this form of power could represent a much quicker way to reach global carbon dioxide emissions targets. Another benefit of hydrogen-powered vehicles is that they can be refueled in a matter of minutes compared to several hours for recharging batteries.
JCB is the developer of the world’s first working hydrogen-powered construction and agricultural machines. Last year, JCB revealed another industry first with a mobile hydrogen refueller, which provides a quick way to refuel machines onsite. JCB’s hydrogen internal combustion engines are manufactured at JCB Power Systems in Derbyshire.
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.