Pioneering e-tractors for farms

DW (English)

Tractors have typically been diesel-powered polluters. But Tadus, a company in Bavaria, has started making e-tractors, which produce little noise and zero emissions and run largely on electricity generated on site.

Transcript

00:00That's what a diesel tractor sounds like, and that's what comes out.

00:07Alongside it, an electric tractor making a different kind of noise, and with zero exhaust.

00:18It was designed by Johanna and Thaddeus Beyer here in Bavaria, and it's their contribution

00:23to a potential revolution in farming machines.

00:27The Thaddeus prototype with 160 horsepower is being put through its paces at this organic

00:32farm outside Munich.

00:42The tractor can run for 5 to 8 hours on a single charge, although the actual idea is

00:47not so new.

00:48I have a family background in farming.

00:52I used to help out a lot when I was growing up and as an adult, and saw the large amount

00:56of electricity being generated on site, so it makes sense to use that electricity right

01:01here instead of feeding it into the grid.

01:07The electric tractor does cost up to 50 percent more than a diesel-powered machine.

01:13But it's an investment that rapidly pays off, say its developers.

01:22For its entire operational life, the principal costs for a tractor are for fuel or energy.

01:29And those costs here, with self-generated power, are around 70 to 80 percent less.

01:36So the additional costs pay themselves off after just 2 to 3 thousand hours of operation.

01:44Putting the electric tractor to its first real test is Franz Oberhausen Buchner.

01:50The solar panels on the roofs of his farm cover almost his entire electricity demand.

02:00I value energy self-sufficiency because it gives me greater financial security.

02:06And it means I'm less vulnerable to market fluctuations on the grid.

02:14The electric tractor would make him even more self-sufficient, with high diesel prices then

02:19no longer an issue.

02:21And the TARDIS comes with another advantage.

02:28Electric motors are easier to service and have less wear.

02:32Plus they don't stink or emit sooty smoke.

02:36I don't need any anti-pollution additive because they're clean.

02:44But there is one drawback.

02:46The battery can't deliver enough energy when it comes to plowing fields or other heavy-duty jobs.

02:55The 500-horsepower tractor with its higher continuous running cannot be replaced by a battery,

03:02not in the foreseeable future, with currently available technologies at least.

03:07So here the solution would be a fuel cell or a diesel generator.

03:12Johanna Beyer runs the marketing side of the new tractor and initially struggled to find

03:16any buyers.

03:17But with German diesel subsidies for the agricultural sector on the way out, she explains, a growing

03:23number of farmers are having a rethink.

03:26There's been a change in responses and in the questions.

03:33We do now see a clear increase in appreciation of the new technology and for its many advantages,

03:39especially on the financial front.

03:43Major vehicle manufacturers are now also joining the move towards electrifying agricultural

03:48machinery.

03:49And farmer Franz-Ulrich Eisenbuchner is already thinking a step ahead.

03:53He's planning to use the TARDIS's battery to supplement his solar power generation system.

03:59As the tractor is not in use for most of the day, it can forward its electricity to his

04:03home and farm buildings.

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