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.
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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.