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from the so-the-green-tractor-is-going-green? dept.
John Deere has released a video of an all-electric concept tractor in the lead-up to the SIMA Agribusiness show in France, pointing the way toward a zero-local-emissions tractor product in the future.
In some ways, tractors seem like an ideal candidate for electrification. Electric motors are great for generating the kinds of huge torque figures tractors require, and tractors are generally fairly short range vehicles that live in the same shed every night, making for convenient recharging. They're also very low-maintenance in comparison with diesel gear.
That's the thinking behind John Deere's SESAM (Sustainable Energy Supply for Agricultural Machinery) tractor, a gutted out JD 6R with a huge battery bank up front and dual electric motors developing up to 130 kilowatts (174 horsepower) of continuous power.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @03:42PM
One answer to that may come from solving another limitation.
Tractors are typically equipped with removable weights, because the balance between increasing capability and limiting ground loading changes by time of year, soil type, and climate. The weights that let you do more work most of the year may dig ruts if you get into the field early in the spring. And if you match a diesel tractor's weight, with the same detachable weights, you don't have much battery, but most of the time have pointless metal weights attached.
So the right answer is clearly to make the battery system modular, so when you do want to increase the weight, you do it by adding modules and increasing your endurance. And once you do that, the solution to range limitations is obvious -- a trailer full of charged battery modules, complete with a crane to assist in swapping them.
Similar battery-swap concepts are difficult to implement for electric cars, but several major hurdles wouldn't apply to tractors: