You might think that, as senior manager for hydrogen transformation at Toyota, Jon Hunt鈥檚 argument for the carbon-free fuel would come from his expertise in vehicles. But in fact it is spurred by a far more pressing challenge: society鈥檚 overall energy mix.
鈥淟ast year, around 50% of the energy we used in the UK was not renewable,鈥� he told attendees at a hydrogen sector event in Tilbury, promoting in part the adoption of hydrogen on the nearby Lower Thames Crossing (LTC).
Most countries in northern Europe cannot rely on renewable power being available when they need it; so they must find a way to store clean energy.
Batteries are not going to be the solution for this type of energy storage. With governments pushing a move to battery electric vehicles, car buyers on their own are predicted to take the vast majority of available battery capacity.
鈥淲e need a better solution to storing energy,鈥� Hunt says. 鈥淗ydrogen is everywhere and it鈥檚聽 totally renewable.鈥�
Toyota sees hydrogen as being essential to the energy transition and Hunt sees real potential in fuel cells.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e much more efficient. They鈥檙e quiet and they have relatively low heat.鈥� Toyota started developing fuel cell technologies in the 1990s, and in 2015 sold the first fuel cell vehicle outside of Japan, to a customer in the UK.
Since then, it has developed the technology further, increasing its efficiency and developing fuel tanks that can hold much more hydrogen. It now has more than 30,000 systems in operation around the world.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no barrier in bringing this technology to the market, apart from that hydrogen supply,鈥� says Hunt. And as we鈥檝e seen elsewhere in this issue, that problem is now being addressed on major construction projects like the Lower Thames Crossing.
Hydrogen fuel cells are certainly efficient. But their efficiency declines the harder they work. When JCB first looked at hydrogen in 2020, the company built two 20-tonne fuel cell excavators, which were ready to demonstrate internally in July. 鈥淚t was a great learning experience,鈥� says Tom Beamish, advanced projects deployment manager at JCB. What they learned is that fuel cells can鈥檛 keep up with how excavators are used.
This article was first published in the September 2026 issue of 黑料社 Magazine. Sign up online.
鈥淎n engine typically gets more efficient the higher power it produces. A fuel cell does the opposite. If a fuel cell is operating at 10-20% load, it鈥檚 very efficient, but the efficiency drops off with load.
鈥淛CB machines鈥� power demands are very transient,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e doing dig cycles every 27 seconds.鈥�
This article was first published in the September 2026 issue of 黑料社 Magazine. Sign up online.
JCB鈥檚 initial enthusiasm for fuel cells was clearly going in the wrong direction and, when Beamish鈥檚 team presented these machines to Lord Bamford, he sent them back to the drawing board. 鈥淗e said, 鈥榃ell, why don鈥檛 we make an engine? We make engines today, we design them in-house, we make them in the UK鈥�,鈥� Beamish recalls.
鈥淲e鈥檇 discounted the idea,鈥� Beamish acknowledges. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not very efficient, they produce lots of emissions, they don鈥檛 produce the right power levels.鈥� But these assumptions were based on out-of-date research. Spurred on by the JCB chair, Beamish鈥檚 team decided to look at the fundamentals, not just at research carried out a quarter of a century previously.
鈥淭he engines studied then were effectively air-starved engines, running very rich,鈥� says Beamish. 鈥淚f you run rich, you run hot. If you run hot, you produce lots of emissions.鈥�
This is the Zel鈥檇ovich effect, first identified by the eponymous Russian scientist in the 1940s. Zel鈥檇ovich burned air at different temperatures, and found that, at higher temperatures, atmospheric nitrogen molecules are split and re-bond to oxygen, forming nitrogen oxides, or NOx.
In compression-ignited diesel engines, manufacturers have moved to higher temperatures 鈥� and a higher proportion of fuel to air 鈥� to make combustion efficiency gains, dealing with the NOx through aftertreatment. Hydrogen can be burned with much more oxygen.
鈥淲e needed to go back a step and design an engine around hydrogen,鈥� says Beamish. 鈥淲e can put lots of air in, and only a small amount of hydrogen. We get very lean, clean combustion, because we don鈥檛 get those hot spots.鈥�
Less than six months after first showing colleagues those fuel cell machines, Beamish and his team had a hydrogen engine working for the first time. 鈥淚t was a cold damp morning and we had plumes of steam puffing up out of the exhaust pipe.鈥�
The team developed a powerful turbocharger to deliver all the air the engine would need. The hydrogen is injected with the air, ensuring an even mix, and avoiding the hot spots that cause NOx emissions.
This article was first published in the September 2026 issue of 黑料社 Magazine. Sign up online.
鈥淲e did about forty iterations of our engine in simulation,鈥� Beamish recalls. 鈥淎nd when we built an engine we found we didn鈥檛 get very good correlation.鈥� A simulation is only as good as the data that informs it. And the data on hydrogen had never been tested in the real world.
鈥淲e started again,鈥� says Beamish. 鈥淲e鈥檝e now done over 200 simulations of that [fuel and air] mixing process.鈥� Working back and forth between simulation and physical testing, the team refined their design.
The company has now done over 50,000 hours of testing, in test cells and on working machines. 鈥淥perators say, 鈥業t鈥檚 normal. It sounds the same, it performs the same, it does exactly the same job.鈥�
These first hydrogen engines deliver 55kW/70hp. They鈥檝e been used commercially in generators and in backhoes and are suitable for around 70% of JCB鈥檚 range.
鈥淭he engine had to be able to fit within the loader arms of a backhoe loader,鈥� Beamish says. 鈥淲e keep within that same package size because we don鈥檛 want to be redesigning engine installations.鈥�
This article was first published in the September 2026 issue of 黑料社 Magazine. Sign up online.
The roof-mounted fuel tanks store hydrogen at 350bar and can be refuelled in minutes, just like a diesel engine.
Moreover, these engines are just as repairable as any other JCB unit. And for JCB, the ability to switch between hydrogen and diesel as backhoes travel down the assembly line promises a smooth transition.
鈥淭oday we might produce 200 engines a day, with one using hydrogen and 199 using diesel,鈥� says Beamish. 鈥淚n the future, we might be producing 199 hydrogen engines and one diesel engine.鈥�
While Beamish has been developing hydrogen internal combustion engines for high peak demand applications like backhoes, Toyota鈥檚 Chris Fisher has been addressing the more steady power demands of on-road vehicles, such as the globally popular Hilux.
The company has taken a multi-tech approach, with its Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car a key part of the mix. The task for Fisher and his team in Derby was to use this technology on the sort of light commercial vehicle used by contractors around the world.
That journey started in earnest in 2022, when, in a six-month surge, the engineers worked out how to carry the existing Mirai Generation 2 fuel system into a Hilux vehicle. This was followed by market engagement with UK suppliers to ensure availability of components, before the company built ten prototype demonstration vehicles.
The starting point for the hydrogen Hilux was the ladder chassis, a critical component of a body-on-frame vehicle. This was taken from a battery electric version, with the space in the centre of the chassis that would normally take batteries, used for the hydrogen storage tanks. Part of Toyota鈥檚 fuel cell strategy has been to develop essentially bullet-proof tanks, and on the Hilux these are further protected by the ladder chassis鈥� longitudinal beams.
The three tanks used on the Hilux carry 7.8kg of hydrogen at 700bar for a driving range of 600km.
Hydrogen flows from the tanks to a stack of 330 hydrogen fuel cells. Using many small fuel cells enables the power needed, without adding weight. 鈥淭hat fuel cell stack weighs 52kg,鈥� Fisher told his audience in Tilbury, 鈥淪o it鈥檚 incredibly light compared to a combustion powertrain.鈥�
The fuel cell stack may be light, but it is large. That means, for now, that Fisher鈥檚 team faced real challenges in fitting the cell stack under the bonnet. On this first iteration of the hydrogen Hilux, that means energy from the fuel cells flows to a motor powering only the rear axles.
Two-wheel drive is not what many Hilux customers are looking for, Fisher acknowledges. 鈥淔our-wheel drive is incredibly important to our customers, so the Generation 3 fuel cell vehicle, which is coming, will have four-wheel drive. The stack will be smaller, allowing space for this.鈥�
While JCB and Toyota have taken different approaches to hydrogen, they are more allies than adversaries. The first public demonstration of the hydrogen Hilux came in 2024, at JCB鈥檚 quarry in Staffordshire. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e a partner, a friend, a near neighbour,鈥� says Fisher, 鈥淎nd they鈥檙e an ally in hydrogen development.鈥�
Toyota has been taking the prototype Hilux commercial vehicles around the world, both to show its confidence in the technology through public demonstrations, and to collect the data that will shape the Generation 3 fuel cell, four-wheel drive Hilux. And JCB continues to develop the market for hydrogen engines, in both plant and in generators.
This article was first published in the September 2026 issue of 黑料社 Magazine. Sign up online.
For customers, the choice isn鈥檛 going to be between combustion and fuel cell. It鈥檚 going to be about finding the right tool for the job, whether you are travelling long distances by road or working hard on a busy job site.