The present invention features nucleic acid constructs that can be used as aHCV nucleic acid vaccine, vaccine component, or in the production of a HCVvaccine. Described constructs include those: (1) encoding for a chimeric HCVpolypeptide containing a NS3-4A region based on a first HCV strain and an NS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5A or an NS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5A-NS5B region based on a second strainand (2) a chimpanzee based adenovector encoding an HCV polypeptide.