After the retrofitted tractor to run on biogas, here is the electric retrofitted tractor. It has been tested since September on the Derval experimental farm in Loire-Atlantique, as part of a project co-financed by the Pays de la Loire Chamber of Agriculture, the Region, EDF and the Vendée company Vensys.
The model chosen is the 6330 from the John Deere brand, namely a tractor originally equipped with a four-cylinder engine developing a power of 77 kW (105 horsepower). It took eighteen months of engineering to replace this thermal engine with a 48 kWh electric battery.
“Charging the battery takes three to four hours from a standard electric vehicle charging outletindicates Jérémy Cantin, responsible for innovation and decarbonization at Vensys. Concerning autonomy, everything depends on the work carried out. »
More attractive cost of use
This is in fact the objective of the project providing for the use of the prototype for one year for all the activities of a mixed crop-livestock farm (transport of fodder, field work). The Derval team notes the work carried out and boxes record all the technical data. “This involves calculating energy consumption and usage costs for each activity” explains Jérémy Cantin. An equivalent project is already being carried out by the company with another tractor in the construction sector.
For the Vensys representative, the cost of the transformation of this agricultural tractor is not representative to date, the operation having been carried out in an experimental framework. “What interests us is the usage cost which should a priori be more attractive with electrical energy” he believes.
Aim for tractors five to seven years old
According to Jérémy Cantin, the average age of tractors in France is twenty-eight years, which means that converting the fleet could take a long time. “To make electric technology accessible, we think that the most interesting thing could be to retrofit a tractor that is five to seven years old, that is to say a tool whose depreciation has ended and whose book value therefore reaches zerohe calculates. IThe operation should have a cost for the farmer equivalent to the purchase of a new diesel tractor, knowing that the cost of use will become lower. »
As electric motors have a priori longer lifespan than thermal engines, the kit could be reused after several years on a more recent tractor body in order to limit maintenance costs.
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