Sensor-Technik Wiedemann (STW) and Supertino have separately both launched electric powered vehicles at Agritechnica 2017, following years of development.
German company STW unveiled a specially adapted electric-powered tractor at the show, which is taking place this week in Hannover, Germany (November 12-18). Although not scheduled for commercial production any time soon the tractor is a French-built Noremat base tractor adapted by STW for electric power. Known as the Symone demonstrator. It took more than 100,000 (US$117,000) to convert the tractor to battery power.
“The battery itself is a lithium ion cell and cost over 50,000,” said Klaus Gnahm from STW. “It’s a 100kwh battery from Kreisel Electric in Austria and charges to full capacity in just one hour. With a full charge, and depending on the workload of the machine, the battery can run for three to five hours.
“This is the same technology that is used in the Fendt e100 electric tractor and it is us that supplies Agco with our electric system for that particular tractor.”
The electric tractor will be used primarily as a test vehicle for a number of applications to aid further development of electric-powered vehicles. Staying with the electric theme, the world’s first electric-powered self-propelled mixer wagon with silage intake chute was on show on the Supertino stand.
Developed in Italy in a joint venture with the University of Turin, Supertino says it has been developing the wagon for the last two years and hopes to bring it to production stage sometime next year.
Although the 150kW battery mixer can currently run for two hours on a full charge and takes three hours to charge to 100%, the company say it is trying to improve that running time to around four hours.
The unit on show was the Electra 21 model with a tub capacity of 21m³ and measuring 8.2m long. Supertino says it has plans in place to develop and produce a total of six electric-powered feed wagons starting with the Electra 12 model, which has a capacity of 12m³, up to the biggest Electra 23, which has a 23m³ capacity.
Supertino would not finalize a price for any of the models and stated that further tests and developments were needed before the wagon was on offer for sale and that this will further affect the price.
November 17, 2017
By Chris McCullough
