406 MPH Land-Speed Record
A hydrogen-powered vehicle has officially crossed the 400-mph barrier, setting a new world land-speed record at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats and putting hydrogen combustion technology in the spotlight.
JCB Hydromax Breaks 400 MPH
JCB’s Hydromax reached an average speed of 406.320 mph, or 653.909 kilometers per hour, during two record runs at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The achievement was confirmed by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, or FIA, making the Hydromax the world’s fastest hydrogen-powered vehicle.
The vehicle was driven by Andy Green, the former Royal Air Force pilot who already holds the outright land-speed record. Green famously drove the Thrust SSC to 763.035 mph in 1997, becoming the first person to officially break the sound barrier on land. He also drove JCB’s diesel-powered Dieselmax to a diesel land-speed record of 350.092 mph in 2006.
A Hydrogen-Powered Car With Digger Engines
The Hydromax is not powered by a conventional hydrogen fuel cell. Instead, JCB fitted the vehicle with two hydrogen-burning internal-combustion engines derived from the company’s industrial machinery.
Together, the engines produce approximately 1,600 horsepower. The technology is particularly significant because JCB has been developing hydrogen combustion engines as an alternative to battery-electric power for heavy machinery, where battery weight, charging times and operating demands can present challenges.
The record attempt therefore served as more than a high-speed stunt. JCB used the project to demonstrate what its hydrogen combustion technology can achieve under extreme conditions.
The Record Runs
To establish the official record, Green completed two runs in opposite directions across the Bonneville course. The FIA-recognized result was the average of those runs, producing the final 406.320-mph record.
The new mark dramatically surpassed the previous FIA hydrogen internal-combustion record of 185.5 mph, set by BMW’s H2R in 2004. It also moved beyond the 303-mph hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle record.
That distinction matters because hydrogen-powered vehicles can use the fuel in fundamentally different ways. Fuel-cell vehicles convert hydrogen into electricity to power electric motors, while hydrogen combustion engines burn the fuel inside an engine in a manner more closely related to conventional gasoline or diesel technology.
Why JCB Is Betting on Hydrogen
JCB has invested heavily in hydrogen technology as it looks for ways to reduce emissions from heavy equipment. The company has said it is investing £100 million in hydrogen-powered engines and has worked with engineering companies including Prodrive, Ricardo and Xtrac on the Hydromax project.
The company’s approach is aimed particularly at industries where replacing large diesel engines with batteries can be difficult because of the weight and energy requirements involved.
The Hydromax record does not prove that hydrogen combustion is ready to replace gasoline, diesel or battery-electric vehicles across the broader transportation market. It does, however, demonstrate that hydrogen combustion engines can deliver extraordinary performance when paired with a purpose-built vehicle and a specialized high-speed course.
Another Record for Andy Green
For Green, the achievement adds another major entry to an extraordinary career in land-speed racing.
His 1997 Thrust SSC run remains the overall land-speed record at 763.035 mph. Nearly three decades later, Green remains the only driver to have officially broken the sound barrier on land.
Now, at the Bonneville Salt Flats, he has once again been behind the wheel of a record-setting vehicle, this time using hydrogen rather than jet fuel or diesel.
The Hydromax’s 406.320-mph run represents a significant milestone for hydrogen-powered transportation and gives JCB a high-profile demonstration of its hydrogen combustion technology. It also shows that the pursuit of speed continues to be a testing ground for technologies that could eventually find applications far beyond the salt flats.
