John Deere 1000kWh Tractor
Author
Discussion

Evanivitch

Original Poster:

26,251 posts

150 months

Friday 18th March 2022
quotequote all
"A full day of fieldwork possible"

So it's a progression from the tethered tractor that was demonstrated a few years ago. Clearly it will have limitations on charge speed and sustained high loads, but simply putting together a 1000kWh vehicle is significant in itself!

https://youtu.be/xAgMl9xWBjs

ZesPak

26,040 posts

224 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
quotequote all
Looks great. Live quite rural here, a lot of farmers are craving for electric solutions. Loads of solar arrays and wind turbines already as well.

Blue Oval84

5,393 posts

189 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
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That's awesome!

mids

1,598 posts

286 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
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That does look good. I wonder if it can tow a Russian tank?

Heres Johnny

8,153 posts

152 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
quotequote all
1000kwh

Hmm...

And how are they going to recharge it?

A 22kw 32a 3 phase supply on a far will take over 2 days but I imagine readily available on a farm.

A rapid 100kw charger is going to take 10 hours and do farms have a spare 100kw capacity knocking around?

SWoll

22,678 posts

286 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
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So "a full day of fieldwork every 3 days" is closer to the truth?

smile

GT9

8,886 posts

200 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
quotequote all
Heres Johnny said:
1000kwh

Hmm...

And how are they going to recharge it?

A 22kw 32a 3 phase supply on a far will take over 2 days but I imagine readily available on a farm.

A rapid 100kw charger is going to take 10 hours and do farms have a spare 100kw capacity knocking around?
Solar might work for some geographies, but you'd probably need two tractors, one to charge whilst the other does the work. Unless you like farming at night....


Turn7

25,629 posts

249 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
quotequote all
Great idea, but Im not convinced about the practicalities of it working the field unsupervised.

So many variables in fieldwork, its not like factory production lines.

Whats happens if it hits a wet patch and starts making a mess or getting stuck ? What happens if the cultivator hits a root and pulls a leg off ?

Etc etc


Heres Johnny

8,153 posts

152 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
quotequote all
GT9 said:
Heres Johnny said:
1000kwh

Hmm...

And how are they going to recharge it?

A 22kw 32a 3 phase supply on a far will take over 2 days but I imagine readily available on a farm.

A rapid 100kw charger is going to take 10 hours and do farms have a spare 100kw capacity knocking around?
Solar might work for some geographies, but you'd probably need two tractors, one to charge whilst the other does the work. Unless you like farming at night....
I guess, maybe with battery swaps or backup, and I can see it someday, 3rd world could be a real opportunity although possibly on a smaller scale.

A quick google says the average home in the UK consumes something like 10kwh a day, so using man maths the tractor needs the suppot of a 100 houses or so, thats a small housing estate.

CrgT16

2,520 posts

136 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
quotequote all
Cool idea and a start.

How much does it weight though? And what would be the cost for such a thing?

Battery tech needs to improve a lot. But at least things are going in the right direction.

Evanivitch

Original Poster:

26,251 posts

150 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
quotequote all
Heres Johnny said:
1000kwh

Hmm...

And how are they going to recharge it?

A 22kw 32a 3 phase supply on a far will take over 2 days but I imagine readily available on a farm.

A rapid 100kw charger is going to take 10 hours and do farms have a spare 100kw capacity knocking around?
The supply isn't 3-phase 32A... It's more likely 100A per phase.

ZesPak

26,040 posts

224 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
quotequote all
Heres Johnny said:
A quick google says the average home in the UK consumes something like 10kwh a day, so using man maths the tractor needs the suppot of a 100 houses or so, thats a small housing estate.
Tbh the sense of scale farms work on is sometimes hard to fathom.
The OH has been working with farmers professionally for years and a fair number of them have solar arrays that could actually power 100 houses.
At the moment they use the amounts of fuel in their tractors that could bring 100s of people to their workplace as well.

It's also very realistic that the cost of this machine will be closer to the cost of a Rimac than to a Tesla Model S.

I'd say about 30x as much as an average person would spend on a car.

Evanivitch

Original Poster:

26,251 posts

150 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
quotequote all
CrgT16 said:
Cool idea and a start.

How much does it weight though? And what would be the cost for such a thing?

Battery tech needs to improve a lot. But at least things are going in the right direction.
There's probably about 4t of batteries alone in there. But the suggestion that it still needs counter weights means it can't be unfathomably heavy. Obviously ground compaction could still be a concern at times.

ColdoRS

1,920 posts

155 months

Saturday 19th March 2022
quotequote all
I would imagine this is aimed at the ‘mega’ farms in China and Australia for now… the type of place with 15million+ acres and no doubt true industrial scale infrastructure for rapid charging a who;e fleet of these.

Great to see though and hopefully one day this tech trickles down and becomes practical to the average farmer in the UK.