I would love an electric tractor and do use an electric buggy and bikes on my farm but in the article they mention replacing hydraulics with electric drives. I’m not claiming to be an expert on electric vehicles or hydraulic systems but that seems like a bigger issue than they are allowing for in the math
Yeah, that means all new farm equipment I would think. That’s cheap, right?
There’s not as much efficiency to be gained in tractors vs cars either. There’s no regen at the end of the field when cultivating. It’s just a steady application of say power to the soil, for hours on end, often with almost zero flexibility for timing (I mean charging). This article is a demonstration of the phrase “easier said than done”.
This guy has built a conversion though and it seems practical on a small farm. https://hackaday.com/2026/01/02/adding-solar-power-to-an-electric-tractor/
I could imagine swappable batteries being a thing in the setup. Farmers tend to have the equipment and the knowledge to do things like that. I don’t mean electrical engineering, but moving heavy shit around. And it doesn’t really matter if it looks like shit like in a car.
i don’t mean electrical engineering
You would be surprised.
I know some, and they’re talented. But I do also know some electrical engineers, so my standards are high.
Absolutely, and farmers wouldn’t do much actual engineering–but farmers are notoriously ingenuous when keeping their ancient and obsolete machines alive and useful. So, i figure that when necessary, they would have no problems rigging up complex electrical systems to meet their needs.
Also definitely not all farmers are highly intelligent, but many definitely are.Hey, mine know the electrical engineers as well, they don’t need to get funky themselves.
It’s a good application for swappable batteries. Then it becomes even more expensive, unfortunately. Farmers typically do have the mechanical knowledge for something like that, it would be just like mounting another implement. 1000kg of plates on the front of the tractor.
True on the expense, but I guess that could be manageable. And swapping batteries while at home taking a dump or going for lunch seems more feasible than taking hour long breaks every few hours.
I mean, diesel’s expensive too. Batteries already look tempting and I think they’re only going to look better as time goes on. The only real hurdle for me is the initial outlay for the new hardware.
Look an a electric tractor actually makes a ton of sense. Even now the largest, heaviest duty vehicles are already electric.
But this write up relies on far too many hypotheticals, the number one being, how do you get the power from wherever it is, to the vehicles, while running in what amounts to continuous operation. For harvest and planting, a farm might be running it’s combines or tractors continuously for weeks on end. And those equipment often service multiple farms. Swappable batteries means you then have to have more equipment to shuttle batteries, and to swap them. If they are big enough to keep a tractor pulling a drill for 12 hours, they’re going to need heavy equipment to swap them.
On a small acreage, where it’s not in continuous operation, it would make total sense. But it sounds like a logistical nightmare for a combine.
