Fresh from setting a new world land speed record of 406.320 mph powered by hydrogen technology, JCB is accelerating investment in its future, with major commitments to British manufacturing and new production capacity in the United States.
The manufacturer is investing in the transformation of its Staffordshire World HQ, while in the U.S., JCB's new factory in San Antonio, Texas — its largest in the world — opens in October of 2026, creating 1,500 jobs over the next five years.
As JCB invests in its next chapter, George Bamford will become Joint Chairman of the family company alongside his father, Lord Bamford, marking the first change at the top of JCB in more than 50 years.
At the heart of JCB's investment in Britain is the £100 million (CAD 188 M) transformation of its Staffordshire headquarters, JCB's home since 1950, when Joseph Cyril Bamford moved production into a former cheese factory in Rocester. A £60 million (CAD 113 M) fully automated powder paint plant and a comprehensively modernised shop floor are part of the transformation, helping to secure the future of more than 8,000 U.K. jobs.
In the U.S., JCB's new $1 billion factory in San Antonio, Texas — at one million square feet, JCB's largest factory in the world — opens in October, 2026. It will build Loadall telescopic handlers and access equipment for North America, the world's biggest construction equipment market.
Investment in factories is being matched by investment in innovation. Hydrogen-powered machines are now in production following JCB's £100 million (CAD 188 M) program to develop hydrogen combustion technology.
Those engines pushed JCB into the record books at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The JCB Hydromax, driven by Wing Commander Andy Green OBE, recorded 406.320 mph (653.909 km/h) on the Salt Flats, becoming the fastest ever hydrogen-powered vehicle — more than doubling the previous hydrogen combustion record and beating JCB's own Dieselmax diesel record, set 20 years earlier. JCB Hydromax was powered by two production-based hydrogen engines manufactured at JCB's factory in Foston, Derbyshire, and went from idea to world record in just 18 months.
George Bamford said: "From the day my grandfather founded JCB in 1945, innovation and investment in Great Britain have been at the heart of everything we do. JCB Hydromax showed the world what British engineering can achieve. That same spirit is in every machine we build. While JCB has expanded globally over the years, our home has always been here, and the record investment we are making in our facilities and in new products is good news for Britain and good news for JCB."
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