UK-built New Holland methane tractor wins Sustainable Tractor of the Year 2027

New Holland has won the Sustainable Tractor of the Year 2027 award with the T7.270 Methane Power, a 270 hp tractor that runs on compressed natural gas and renewable biomethane produced from agricultural waste streams. The award was announced on 11 November 2026.

The tractor is manufactured at the New Holland factory in Basildon, Essex, which is part of CNH Industrial NV. Its launch was facilitated by the government-funded APC Collaborate ATLAS project, which the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) describes as delivering the world's first liquid fugitive methane-powered off-highway agricultural tractor built in the UK.

The project combined several next-generation technologies. Methane is harvested from livestock slurry, water treatment, landfill gas or decomposing biomass, all of which would otherwise release it into the atmosphere. The APC says this makes the activity carbon negative.

New Holland works with Bennamann Limited, a UK-based clean-energy technology company that is part of CNH, to support a circular farming model. Fugitive methane from livestock manure is captured, processed and refined into tractor fuel, which can help farms cut emissions and move towards greater energy self-sufficiency.

The ATLAS consortium included the following UK organisations:

Steve Brown, Senior Project Delivery Lead at the APC, said the project brought together expertise across the UK to build an ecosystem for capturing farm-based methane emissions and using them to fuel the T7. Both the fuelling system and the tractor can be supplied through CNH. He added that it shows how targeted grant funding, combined with industry investment, can deliver commercialised innovation.

The T7.270 Methane Power builds on the T6.180 Methane Power, developed under an earlier APC project. It extends New Holland's methane technology into a higher power class, aimed at biomethane plant operators, large arable farms, contractors and other users with demanding field and transport work.

Darragh Mullin, New Holland T7 Long Wheelbase Global Product Manager, said the company began investing in alternative fuels nearly two decades ago. He described the award as "a strong endorsement" of the potential of methane technology for agriculture.

The work was supported through the UK Government's £4 billion DRIVE35 programme, delivered by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade with the APC and Innovate UK. All government grant funding is subject to HMG approval.