JCB has made a second breakthrough in proving the wider appeal of hydrogen combustion technology by installing one of its hydrogen engines into a Mercedes Sprinter van.
The retrofit was completed in just two weeks and one of the vehicle’s first test drivers was JCB Chairman Anthony Bamford, who is leading the company’s £100m hydrogen engine project.
The engine used in the van is the same as those already powering prototype JCB construction and agricultural machines. It is the second Mercedes vehicle to be retrofitted with a JCB hydrogen engine; earlier this year a 7.5 tonne Mercedes truck was given the JCB hydrogen treatment.
Lord Bamford said: “We have 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. 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.”
