Yesterday. Would you buy and EV?

[meackerman]

is there a readily available EV tractor with dealers available?

one thing I've found with the battery powered lawn equipment, (mowers, weed wackers etc) when they break people just toss them since there is no one local to fix them. With the gas powered lawn equipment, they generally get them repaired...either themselves, a neighbor or a repair shop. though one guy down the street, keeps breaking his ride on lawn mowers, he takes it across the street to our neighborhood mechanic and goes and buys another one. The neighborhood mechanic fixes the mower and then sells it.....I don't get why the one neighbor doesn't just wait for his broken mower to get fixed.

So if there is no dealer nearby to service an EV tractor, most people don't know enough about batteries and electronics to service it themselves. Lots of people around here know enough about ICE powered equipment to work on them.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

I’d probably consider an electric mower when replacement battery prices make it economical but that is likely a very long way off. I’ve never bought a new mower and never paid more than about $100 for one. They all needed some repair or other and lasted 10+ years without any significant work. Many SCUTs are mainly lawnmowers and might see an hour of snow clearing at a time and they would be good candidates for EV but again, only when battery prices and life fall in line with what we are using now.

An EV tractor is out of the question for me. When I need it, I need it to run as long as required. Last fall in the flooding the 1969 JD backhoe ran about 8 hours straight only stopping for gas a couple times.

The Kubota ran about 18 hours pushing material and providing light.

We had people making fuel runs to keep us moving but without power we wouldn’t have kept the creek contained for long.

 

[mgstevens]

"most people don't know enough about batteries and electronics to service it themselves"

Couple of things: ICE's break as they have a LOT of moving parts. Electric motors do not - either break nor have a lot of moving parts. In fact, they have ONE moving part. Any other system on an EV is the same as any other non-EV-powered vehicle (brakes, etc) so the problem is not as dire as you suggest.

As for knowledge, the average person is fast learning that an electric-powered anything requires far less service than a fuel-powered anything, but also that the knowledge needed to diagnose and repair is far less complex than that of a comparable ICE-based vehicle. Today the systems are new, but they are being figured out. Battery (cells - better storage coming along regularly, and increasingly replaceable as cells should one die prematurely) charge controller and electric motors. But again - you don't hear complaints of the drive systems going on these vehicles, so the need to "work on" these vehicles is nearly non-existent. Obviously not for the backyard mechanic or the DIY tinkerer, but thankfully, they are not setting the policies for out collective futures.

The planet needs this. To hell with the gas-guzzling crowd.

 

[blee03]

To hell with the gas-guzzling crowd.

 

[meackerman]

"Couple of things: ICE's break as they have a LOT of moving parts. Electric motors do not - either break nor have a lot of moving parts. In fact, they have ONE moving part. Any other system on an EV is the same as any other non-EV-powered vehicle (brakes, etc) so the problem is not as dire as you suggest."

less moving parts sure. more circuit boards, batteries (when, not if, they die) that when they die cost as a ton to replace, sometimes more than the thing costs...which is more true with smaller pieces of equipment.

I know a few Prius (hybrid not EV) owners that junked their cars because the battery pack died and it cost more than the car was worth to replace. You won't see many, if any, of the current EV models on the road in 20 years.

I know a number of people that have bought battery powered lawn equipment, have it break right outside the warranty, toss it because there's no place to get it repaired...other than shipping it back to the manufacturer and go and buy a gas powered tool to replace the broken battery powered one.
Yeah its all new, I'm not going to be one of the people that jump on the it, until they technology has matured. EV's are pretty much where ICE was back in the early 1900s. They'll get better and even more reliable...my boss's Tesla has been in the shop for problems way more than my Toyota ICE vehicle has....
other people want to blaze the way with EV's and such, well bless their hearts for spending the money for the manufacturers to mature the products.

 

[Joe Batt]

Grain farmers need lots of energy. I don't. I use about 50 gallons of diesel/year. Thats 7,333 megajoules, or 2,037kilowatt hours... or assuming a 60 kWh battery, 34 charges. That's definitely doable for me.

Some things would not be feasible. The most fuel I've used in a day is 6 gallons (240 kWh). That was a full day of mowing. I would probably be able to mow 3 hours with an EV. I would want to have a second generator for emergencies (currently I have a diesel tractor and a gasoline contractor generator).

Up side would be reduced maintenance. No oil changes, no hauling fuel, no storing fuel, less heat, hopefuly no radiator screen to constantly clear when I'm mowing.

 

[nickfank]

That's just the thing. EV cars are not really progress. They hinder progress toward better alternatives. Hydrogen Fuel Cells are already superior technology, but are ignored because the masses do not understand what they are.

The main reason hydrogen isn't being adopted is efficiency. The engineers understand what fuels cells are, and are making reasonable decisions before the masses are even given the option.

With both lithium batteries and hydrogen, the process starts with electricity and ends with electricity. For vehicles, that means both will lose 5% from the ultimate power source because generators are 95% efficient, then grid losses before the storage process begins are another 5%, and a final 5% because electric motors are 95% efficient.

So far, so good, but the difference comes in the storage losses...

With lithium batteries, the power goes straight into the battery, but you only get 90% of it back out. So total efficiency from the generation source to the wheel is 95% X 95% X 90% X 95% = 77% total efficiency.

With Hydrogen, step one is electrolysis, which is 75% efficient, then you have to compress the gas, which takes out another 10% of the energy. Converting the hydrogen back to electricity in a fuel cell is a 60% efficient process, so for the hydrogen vehicle the total efficiency from generation source to wheel is 95% X 95% X 75% X 90% X 60% X 95% = 35% total efficiency. That's roughly the same as an ICE, so hardly an improvement.

If your goal is not to reduce fossil fuel consumption, you can make your hydrogen by using steam reforming of natural gas. That eliminates the 5% grid loss and another 5% for the generator, but the process itself is still 75% efficient at best, so the same as electrolysis. Then you have to distribute the hydrogen via truck or pipeline. We don't know how much that costs since nobody has ever done it, but my guess is that you end up losing 10% or more based on the costs we know exist in the current gasoline/diesel distribution system.

So no matter how you produce the hydrogen, you end up losing 65% of your input power vs 23% for lithium batteries.

The only place I can think of where hydrogen wins is in the energy density- The range of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will be much better than a lithium battery vehicle because you get so much more power out of a much lighter system. Maybe useful for trains, planes and boats that all have to travel long distances between refueling, but not any better than using fossil fuels for those situations.

Thought I should add a source, since my claims/opinions are no more valid than anyone else's without a source. Here's a nice explanation. They break the problem up differently, but come up with roughly the same result as my back of the napkin calculation: What’s more efficient? Hydrogen or battery powered?

 

[5030]

On subject... If I was given an EV, I'd take one. Far as purchasing one, never.

 

[Bentrim]

Years ago 70-73 General Electric built the Elec Trak. It had what appeared to be 6 6 volt batteries 2 under the hood and 4 under the seat. The only way I know a little about them is the dealer I was working for traded one on a new Massey. Of course the batteries were dead and would no accept a charge. The tractor was driven by an electric motor, and the mower deck had a motor for each spindle. Don't remember if it was sold or junked.
I know there is a website about them as with all oddities there is always someone that knows about them and collects them. I think there were only produced a few years them fell off the market.
Without getting too political we are having to move to the "future" because of our current administration. I am in no hurry, if ever expect to, give up on ice. just wish every one would come to their senses and realize it cannot happen "overnight", or as fast as they are trying to push them on to us. As used to be on Saturday night they just ready for "prime time" yet, maybe in another 30 to 40 years they might be OK but not yet.

 

[RoyJackson]

Without getting too political we are having to move to the "future" because of our current administration. I am in no hurry, if ever expect to, give up on ice. just wish every one would come to their senses and realize it cannot happen "overnight", or as fast as they are trying to push them on to us.

I saw a news video of ***** and his entourage driving through Washington...his limo, 5 or 6 full sized SUVs...all internal combustion engines and those vehicles probably got no more than 10 MPG, if that...
So, the first one going EV had better be ***** or the rest of us can tell him to kiss our azzes