Between 110 and 120 liters of diesel per hectare are consumed in agriculture – this is estimated by the Information Medien Agrar association. In Germany, this adds up to consumption of around two billion liters of diesel per year in agriculture and forestry. Electric versions of large tractors are currently missing. In the past, they often failed due to the enormous amount of energy required for normal use in agriculture.
New models in development
At the Agritechnica agricultural trade fair in November 2023, researchers from the Technical University of Munich presented a development kit for electric tractors. These kits are suitable for small and medium-sized tractors, such as those used in fruit cultivation. The research group sees “the possibility of electrification, especially in tractors that have to work many hours but must deliver constant performance.” The tractors developed in this way run on a kind of power bank as a replaceable battery.
Timo Frasch, Seeon Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 20 Christian Müßgens and Henning Peitsmeier, Hamburg/Munich Published/Updated: Recommendations: 25 FAZ authors Published/Updated: Recommendations: 42
The agricultural machinery manufacturer Fendt from the Allgäu wants to advance an electric model after a few prototypes. After the company first presented and subsequently tested an electric tractor in 2017, the machine is scheduled to go into production from the end of 2024. There are also considerations on the foreign market to advance the electric tractor, including from the US manufacturer John Deere and the American-Italian manufacturer CNH Industrial.