Electric tractors – Sustainable and Profitable? Economic and environmental impact of autonomy and electric drivelines in agriculture

Abstract

Vehicle electrification can be an effective emission-mitigating technology in heavy vehicles, including in agriculture. Simulation was used to assess the effect of switching conventional diesel tractors to multiple lighter autonomous battery-electric tractors on a Swedish grain farm. An autonomous diesel tractor was also considered. An LCA was made to assess environmental impacts, and the annual cost was calculated. The electric scenario had a 65% lower climate impact than its diesel counterpart and had a reduced the annual cost by lowering operator, fuel and maintenance cost. In total, the cost was lowered by 31% from the conventional scenario. In both the environmental impact and cost, fuel played an important role.

Published in

VDI reports
2022, number: 2406, pages: 189-196
Title: AgEng LAND.TECHNIK 2022 : International Conference on Agricultural Engineering
Publisher: VDI Verlag

Conference

International Conference on Agricultural Engineering, AgEng-LandTechnik2022, Berlin, Germany, 22/11/22 - 23/11/22

SLU Authors

• Lagnelöv, Oscar

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Larsson, Gunnar

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Larsolle, Anders

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hansson, Per-Anders

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Robotics

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.51202/9783181024065-189
• ISBN: 978-3-18-092406-9
• eISBN: 978-3-18-102406-5

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/129762