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by Robotbeat 3374 days ago
Agreed. A pickup based on the Volt technology would be fantastic. Electric can allow crazy good torque. And you have a nice big battery, backed by a quiet and efficient built-in generator that only needs to run occasionally, to run power tools off of.
1 comments

I'm a small minority market, but I'd love an electric replacement for my 30hp diesel small compact utility tractor.

It's a natural fit. The extra weight is a positive not a negative. The tractor is already a hydrostatic transmission in order to get continuous torque across RPMs and some in this market already use an electric motor for hydraulics (powered from a generator via the engine). It's only used for short bursts of activity so doesn't need a particularly huge battery even.

But such a product doesn't exist yet :-(

It is coming soon! Here is a Hybrid ZTR prototype my company has been working on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J34KU9OG9M8
That's nice and I would even consider buying one, but it's not a tractor.

Need three point hitch, loader, PTO, and industrial tires.

When you (or someone else) makes one with equivalence to about 30 or 40hp for under $30k and, I will instantly buy it.

The ZTR is just a test platform to ensure our motor drives can handle the load swings. We specialize in the power and drive systems, so we likely won't be making complete mowers ourselves.

All of those things are certainly doable, although we will be pretty much eliminating the hydraulic system, so the PTO and loader might need to be thought out a little differently.