John Deere Previews Massive Electric Farm Tractor

By Chris Chase

Dec 7, 2016

Cool Stuff / Fun Stuff / Pop Culture

Summary

Ag equipment manufacturer calls it silent agriculture

The auto industry isn't the only one looking towards an electrified future. John Deere has previewed an all-electric farm tractor concept ahead of its official reveal at the 2017 Paris Agribusiness Show in February.

Dubbed SESAM, for Sustainable Energy Supply for Agricultural Machinery, this Deere runs on a massive lithium-ion battery pack that lives under the hood, where a big turbodiesel would normally sit. A couple of sources we scanned suggested that battery is a 130 kWh unit, but a press release on John Deere France's website doesn't state its battery capacity, only stating this prototype's output at 130 kW, or 174 hp. That doesn't sound like much, but as the video embedded below (captioned in French) suggests, the SESAM concept produces loads of torque at low speeds, just like you'd expect a powerful electric vehicle to do.

Other things SESAM does that other tractors do include running all the various accessories you see tractors towing around farm fields, and keeping the operator comfortable in an air conditioned cabin.

This isn't John Deere's first foray into alternative fuel agriculture: in 2013, it showed a tractor concept that ran on vegetable fuel, and a 2015 BatteryBoost design was a hybrid that -- if we're reading the French correctly -- used an exchangeable battery pack.

Meet the Author

As a child, Chris spent most of his time playing with toy cars in his parents’ basement or making car sounds while riding his bicycle. Now he's an award-winning Algonquin College Journalism grad who has been playing with real cars that make their own noises since the early 2000s.