Some one wanted to know if we'd buy an EV tractor

[cqaigy2]

Depends

 

[Raul-02]

Depends

safe answer if I ever saw one.

 

[cqaigy2]

safe answer if I ever saw one.

Not tooting my horn, but it's a smart answer too. I don't have emotional issues with EV tractor. If it makes sense economically to do it, short run and long run.

 

[blackd]

Running anything except for a small compact tractor for a short period of time from a battery will be completely impractical due to the weight and cost of the battery, the amount of current you will draw to feed the charger to recharge the battery in a reasonable time period, and the huge demands this will put on the utility distribution and generation infrastructure. A day of cutting hay with a typical disc mower-conditioner or baling with a decent sized round baler (requiring ~100 HP) will require at least a megawatt-hour of battery, which is about 10 times the size of a large battery-powered car battery and would need the equivalent of roughly a thousand amps of 240 volt single phase to charge that battery overnight so you can work again tomorrow. It will take about the same amount of electricity to charge that battery just once as an average house uses in an entire month as well. And that is only a 100 HP tractor, which is pretty small as far as ag tractors go, and only one of them being run at a time. The guy across the highway from me who farms for a living and has about 10 tractors, some of which are 300+ HP center-articulated units, a couple combines, semis, a swather, sprayer, etc. would take several dozen MWH per day during fieldwork and would take roughly the entire output of the nearest substation (about 5 MW) just to power his chargers. And then those megawatt-hours of electricity have to come from somewhere. The utility here has so far kept the lights on but we've already gotten e-mails to reduce usage on certain days in order to try to prevent rolling blackouts. There is no way you can add that enormous demand to the already insufficient system, absolutely no way at all.

So my little 22.5HP MF might take as long as 1 week's worth of electricity to charge?

 

[Williy]

Perhaps it would be best if we forget about
the electric companies and anything electric
and go back to the horse and buggy????

The electric tractor companies say your cutting
down on emmissions??? What is producing all
the power to recharge the batteries?
Also making the batteries and all the material
that it takes to make a tractor. It sounds good
but too much B.S. including in the hype about
how good the electric tractor is for the enviroment.
Perhaps Elon Musk has the answer?????

willy

 

[Locoweed]

Perhaps it would be best if we forget about
the electric companies and anything electric
and go back to the horse and buggy????

The electric tractor companies say your cutting
down on emmissions??? What is producing all
the power to recharge the batteries?
Also making the batteries and all the material
that it takes to make a tractor. It sounds good
but too much B.S. including in the hype about
how good the electric tractor is for the enviroment.
Perhaps Elon Musk has the answer?????

willy

Yeah, but the emissions are somewhere else, out of sight. You know, out of sight, out of mind?

 

[p0diabl0]

Absolutely. We're nowhere there yet for big machines but it should be relatively simple for something in the compact/subcompact range. Tractor manufacturers aren't exactly known to be cutting edge though so it will be a while. Bobcat already makes an electric skid steer.

I've got an electric golf cart and a gas powered Kawi Mule. I love the total lack of maintenance required on the cart vs the mule. No oil, no filters, no fuel hoses, no trips to the gas station with 5 gallon containers (but I still do that for the Kubota )

 

[bnold]

Yeah, but the emissions are somewhere else, out of sight. You know, out of sight, out of mind?

No current interest in an electric tractor, maybe someday! I could see a market for 60hp and less small property owners.


But, from just looking at the power side.
Burning fossil fuel in a power plant vs a small ICE is a considerable difference in efficiency and emissions.

 

[John0829]

Yeah, but the emissions are somewhere else, out of sight. You know, out of sight, out of mind?

The thing being overlooked is that they can control the emissions from one power plant better than they can from hundreds or thousands of internal combustion engines. Years ago when I worked at the local coal fired plant each morning they would fly a small plane though what was coming out of the stack and measure the emissions. I sure the emissions are monitored even more now.

 

[sea2summit]

Not tooting my horn, but it's a smart answer too. I don't have emotional issues with EV tractor. If it makes sense economically to do it, short run and long run.

How long will one run my whole house PTO generator? I’ve been without power as long as 8 days.