Electric farm vehicles are making their way into the marketplace. Are they ready for widespread usage – and are farms ready for them? While there are a lot of benefits to electric tractors, there are still some challenges that must be overcome. Let’s look at those pros and cons.
As electric vehicle development continues to increase, this new technology is beginning to make its way to farms and ranches. While this might be a wave of the future, there are several variables to consider before taking the leap to electric (EV) tractors on your farm.
Pluses of EV Tractors
Unlike electric road vehicles such as cars and trucks where the weight of their batteries poses an obstacle for their development, electric farm tractors find this increased weight to be beneficial. In electric farm machinery, the higher weight of the batteries is a benefit that can improve both traction and stability for the heavy farm work that these machines perform.
One of the better known benefits of electric vehicles, including tractors, is the positive environmental impact they make by reducing air pollution as well as noise pollution. With zero emissions while working on battery power and a whisper-quiet engine, there’s virtually no comparison in this category between electric and diesel or gas-powered tractors.
Electric tractors can also operate with higher efficiency compared to diesel or gas engine tractors since all of the energy spent goes directly to the work that the tractor is performing. With diesel and gas engines, some of the energy is spent creating heat during combustion in the engine. While this might seem like a nominal amount of energy loss, over hundreds and thousands of acres this can add up to greater food production vs. energy consumption, which may equate to higher profitability for your farm.
Another benefit to electric tractors is the ability for some to operate fully autonomously. These tractors can be operated from a smartphone or personal device, programmed to precision. While this can increase productivity per man hours, it is also arguably significantly safer to operate than manned diesel and gas-powered tractors. While it’s hard to put a price tag on a metric such as this, it can prove quite valuable as you are able to allocate your farm staff toward other tasks that cannot be automated and provide a safer and healthier work environment for your farm crew.
