New Tractor Company as if we didn't have enough

[ericm979]

Running an electric tractor (or car for that matter) will require some adapting to how the machine works. Just like running a fuel vehicle does. The difference is that we have already adapted to running fuel vehcles. Though the threads about what's the right warm up time, idling vs shutting down, how to keep the engine warm in very cold weather, and preventing fuel gelling might indicate that not everyone does.

I have friends who bought an electric car with a relatively short range. They're bike racers and bike races are held in far off out of the way places. They view finding charging stations and factoring in charging time to their trips as a fun challenge. It turns out that it's not that difficult for them to go wherever they want.

In the same way, if you wanted to run an electric tractor you'd spend a little time learning how to operate it and make some minor changes to work with the limitations that are different than diesel tractors.

 

[5030]

Bottom line is... Not in my lifetime so the electric tractor is moot for me. I won't even own a T4 final tractor. I have 2 large frame Kubota's both pre 4 units and at 30 gallons fuel capacity I can run dawn to dusk anytime.

Far as fueling them, I don't spill any or get it on my person. Comes out of the bulk tank into the tractors when I get home and when I check the fluid levels at the end of the day.

I have no love for electric anything except cordless tools. Never will.

 

[JLH4]

On a small trailer take a spare battery pack and small generator/solar array with the equipment to change out the battery pack, your lunch, water etc. and you would be good for the day. Of course this may not happen for a while yet but maybe in 10 - 20 years, ay?
Joe

 

[PuffyC]

This is a promising step forward. I can see a day when this is scaled up to high hp Ag Tractors. Think about solar panels on all the massive farm out buildings providing electricity and charging powerful battery modules. A self driving mule would bring the battery module out to the field and exchange battery modules and return the drained battery back to the charging station. There's a reason the major manufacturers are building prototypes.

For big operations the days of requiring a human to pilot a tractor are coming to an end, just like it is with semis and delivery vans. The transition to EVs is the same and the only real question is when. Considering self-driving electric semis are being tested on public roads today, I'd guess that would be sooner rather than later. In a few generations people will probably look at diesel powered, manually driven tractors as either quaint novelties for the hobbyist or necessities of the poor.

 

[hube2]

I don't see them becoming 'mainstream' in my lifetime.

Neither do I

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Yup, I only said they're "not ready yet."

I'm sure it will happen. Probably not in my lifetime either. Such is the way of things.

But I do get tired of the BS illusion that "somehow" going electric is "cleaner". That's BS for now. We have to go nuclear power first, and the bunny huggers and tree whisperers would lose their pea brain little minds over that. Plugging in an "electric" anything now just moves the location of the pollution source. A hollow "feels good" movement. Right now, since the tree whisperer doesn't SEE the pollution, they think they're saving the world. But that COAL fired power plant, and that 3rd world country with the strip mine (for batteries), and that toxic waste dump (for the expired batteries) are all FAR ENOUGH AWAY from the tree whisperer when they plug in their little electric "whatever" that they can conveniently stay in denial about what they're actually doing to the earth.

Far more poisonous than my diesel powered tractor.

Maybe someday it will be viable and actually "clean", but that will be many decades down the road.

 

[bearthebruce]

@Slowpoke Slim, a few years back, I believed as you do - that the EV revolution is a myth and that the pollution just moves from one type to another. I still do but with less passion.

I started traveling to China in 2010. Frankly the air quality there sucked in all the major cities I visited. I was back in China in 2016, 2017, and 2018. I could not believe what the Chinese had accomplished in such a short time.

Leading the way was their development of EV. At the same time, they put the fixed pollution controls on their coal fired power plants. They restricted driving in the cities. In each of the later years, I actually saw the sun on a sunny day. Their pollution issues were significantly reduced.

While much of what you have written remains true - that our grid cannot support a complete change to EV, that we need new clean energy sources, that we need to solve the battery reclamation issues, my point to you is that there can be a huge change in the air quality to take the ICE out of the mainstream - especially in the big population centers. In rural locals, it makes little difference. In the population centers, I have witnessed the big change.

Keep an open mind. I am not convinced EV is the solution everywhere. I am convinced it has advantages and it has disadvantages.

Also keep in mind that the governments are pushing the electrification of vehicles. Manufacturers are being pressured to comply. I don't see what the governments get out of it but they are pushing. My daddy told me, "Son, follow the money if you want to know what is happening." Someone is getting money from all this.

I saw what the Chinese achieved in a short time. Could LA, NYC, Chicago, Atlanta, other big cities... do the same if they push for EV.

What about the rest of us? I'm not sure. I just know it is coming and it will not be stopped. CA. OR, WA they (the people) want it. The West coast often sets the agenda. A day will come when all that will be at the dealer will be EVs of some ilk. That day will be by the end of this decade if the plans of many manufactures come to fruition. Prediction is that by 2035, 50% of all vehicles on the highways will be EV. Could be BS. Might just be reality.

 

[Thomas]

Times are a changing.

 

[ericm979]

It's a lot easier to reduce emissions of a small number of large power plants than to do it on a large number of individual vehicles. While that does not help CO2 (until plants start doing carbon capture) it does reduce the other emissions.

We're also getting a lot of solar power now. Solar plants are cheaper per KW than coal or gas even discounting the subsides. Solar panels are still getting cheaper to make each year and will be for quite a while. The last couple years there's been more KW of solar installed than gas or coal plants come on line.

Sure making solar panels is not emissions-free, but neither is extracting gas, oil or coal. And the emissions from making the panels is tiny compared to the power they make over their lifetime.

I do wish the tractor company was making just a good competitive electric tractor without the self-driving stuff. The market for electrics is wide open and it's a lot easier to develop a human driven tractor than to make self driving work.

 

[JDAOWNER]

AS FAR AS MILES PER CHARGE GOES, THE QUOTED MILES PER CHARGE IS IN OPTUM CONDITIONS, REMEMBER THE AIR CONDITIONER, HEATER, RADIO, WIPERS ETC. USE JUICE ALSO.