Re:Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a drive...
by sangnoir on Friday December 11, 2020 @08:55PM
(#25394519)
I doubt anyone will come in and "clean house" - especially not from a VC-funded startup. The (oft-subsidized) money is just too good to "leave on the table". The best we can hope for, are solid Right-to-repair laws that make DRM illegal/possible to bypass to at least allow custom firmware
Re:Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a drive...
by vvanders on Friday December 11, 2020 @11:08PM
(#25395429)
I dunno, in the CUT space you've got the 3-point hitch, SSQA, hydraulic remotes and a bunch of other standards that make implements pretty interchangeable. Makes brand lock-in pretty difficult.
If I had the option for either a pure-electric or diesel-electric I would have seriously considered it. At least in our case the workload is a lot of hauling, intermittent groundwork and field mowing(<10ac) all of which would have fit really well.
Also all the JD DRM stuff only applies in the larger 100hp+ market. In the SCUT/CUT/Utility Tractor market there's a fairly robust set of companies(Kubota, LS, JD, Mahindra, Yanmar, etc).
We've got a Kubota CUT, when rats chewed out the writing harness we were 4 weeks before we had it up and running even with insurance + dealership.
Personally I'd love to see someone come in and clean house. Weight and torque are the two things you want in a tractor and electric has both in spades. I think tractors in the CUT space where hydrostatic transmission are common would make a really good fit since you can basically eliminate the HST.