Apparently, tractor production will be in North Carolina
- Thread starter LowMilesLesabre
- Start date
I was thinking the same...it's like a big gas station. One piece flow? Where do you store incoming and finished inventory?
maybe it is meant to be some sort of assembly facility with the manufacturing at another location (article mentioned California). Maybe they box it up and send to NC for final assembly? Seems weird but IDK...
just my $0.02
Great for hobby farmers that need an hour or so run time.
For real work on commercial farming, diesel will be the go to solution for the next 2 decades at least, imo.
Just cannot store enough battery energy in the frame rails to give the power output you get from diesel, dawn to dusk.
And onsite charging infrastructure would not be cheap or easy for farms if you can get a large capacity battery battery for tractors, combines etc.
For real work on commercial farming, diesel will be the go to solution for the next 2 decades at least, imo.
Just cannot store enough battery energy in the frame rails to give the power output you get from diesel, dawn to dusk.
And onsite charging infrastructure would not be cheap or easy for farms if you can get a large capacity battery battery for tractors, combines etc.
We had a small grey-market Mitsubishi diesel tractor when I lived in the sticks. Loved it. Bulletproof drivetrain. Very seldom did that tractor run for just an hour at a time when working. Brush-cutting our property was a 2+ hour job.
Keep in mind that the PTO and the load of any implement it runs will cut into charge time too. Maybe this electric tractor will run an hour with no PTO use or added weight from implements, but a brush cutter or other serious use will probably reduce run time to half an hour.
This looks like a landscaping equipment for those luxury hotels' maintenance department. They want to be quiet and won't run for a long time with fume and noise, trashing the quality of the area.
The "big" tractor has exchangeable battery packs. They claim 3-8 hours run time depending on usage. A user could have multiple battery packs so they can swap and recharge sequentially and run continuously. $75k plus $10k for each additional battery pack. Around 8 hours to charge on a 220v Level 2 charging station.
god bless the early adopters (as much as I hate the whole concept, fantasize what a bad personality they have). The real use will come as this is developed thru them. Hobby farmers, estate owners, etc R those who will use this and it will B developed toward the bigger acreage. Too bad they don't have the big ones now. Let the big industrial farms (corporations) throw some $ into development too. (no 1 is expecting owners to tie into the grid - this wrks cuz they have a mini solar farm on site).
They kind look like a 3rd rate Chinese no name tractor… I don’t think battery power is bad for some tractors and usage, but it’s got to be a good tractor first.
that's what I mean by the time factor. Like the OP, he found inconvieniances in 3 or 4 spots. Early odopters will complain and co will improve as competition comes out. Or - loose it & competition who has it will grow over them. This is the theory anyhoo. Musk on tesla, ford on developing the production line, etc
These tractors are a great fit of driving inside and outside buildings. They can assist in interior construction projects.
I predict those will go over like a fart in small tent, I will take a Kubota 3cyl diesel any day.
Or a Kubota electric version? I haven't been following how bad the emissions equipment is in the long term on the major brands? The days of a simple diesel tractor running 6000hrs just changing filters and oil, and tires for 40 years is done... How much worse the new stuff is, I don't know.
An electrical drivetrain is less brand specific I would think? More like a big RC car, except for custom battery shapes... I have run my tractor for 6+ hours maybe a dozen days in its life, but most of the usage is 2hrs or less. I'm a hobby farmer though and most jobs can wait or be split between a couple days, except for hay of course...
An electric skid steer makes more sense to me, most of the smaller ones aren't running "pto" things like bush hogs with their hydraulics. Plus they could replace the inefficient hydrostat drives with a pair of motors, and lots of them get used inside barns. Obviously the electric forklift is pretty proven.
"...a Kubota diesel..."
not inside the bulding as he said.
not inside the bulding as he said.
If inside building, will propane be ok? or still too dirty?
yes, many shops used it (places I worked & OSHA was alive then). Now I think they use more ele as posted above. My 'druther' is no solar farms, national policy to outfit everywhere that can (not too shady) w/rooftop 1st (comercial, residential, instution, government, etc). The plant would supply iits own power to the extent possible (also national policy to retro fit/update bldgs & their systems for energy efficency). The farms would be developed only asa 2nd phase, after inventory & in coordination with.
Zamboni's use propane in hockey rinks, and I see propane fork lifts in warehouses that often have the doors open.
In reality probably a simple propane tractor without any fancy emissions stuff would be best for a small utility tractor where fuel cost isn't really that significant.
Or even a gas FI motor? I'm only averaging 80hrs per year on my 41hp tractor, so the bigger liquid cooled gas motors for commercial mowers would last for decades likely and the whole motor is probably less than a turbo, injection pump, and a few emissions components for a diesel compact tractor.
My tractor is a 2011 with a NA 2.0l 4 cyl diesel and has no emissions systems and indirect injection with glow plugs so it should go 40 years with fluids, filters and tires, 11 down so far atleast! There is a puff of condensation out the exhaust sometimes on start up and after that no smoke unless you bog it. You can walk through the exhaust stream and it doesn't make you smell like diesel at all... I don't know how much cleaner a tractor needs to be really....
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