British driver sets speed record in hydrogen-powered car

By Alice Galliott with AP

Published on 12/08/2026 - 14:30 GMT+2

The 64-year-old drove the JCB Hydromax, a 9.75-metre car built by British construction equipment manufacturer JCB. The record, ratified by motorsport's governing body the FIA, was measured as the average of two runs and more than doubled the previous hydrogen combustion mark of 185.5 mph, set in 2004.

Green already held the diesel land speed record, set at Bonneville in 2006, and remains the only person to have broken the sound barrier in a car — a feat he achieved in the jet-powered ThrustSSC in 1997, at 763 mph.

The Hydromax runs on two hydrogen internal combustion engines producing a combined 1,600 horsepower, adapted from those used in JCB's construction machinery. They mix pressurised hydrogen gas with air and ignite it to create power. "You burn hydrogen, water comes out of the exhaust. It doesn't get any cleaner than that," Green said after the run.

JCB hopes the project will strengthen the case for hydrogen in heavy industry. But hydrogen is only as clean as its source: the vast majority is currently produced from fossil fuels, and the green hydrogen the company has contracted to buy makes up a tiny fraction of global production.

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