The electric vehicle movement is coming for agriculture next.
The big idea:
- Farming and agriculture relies heavily on fossil fuel powered tractors
- Electric tractors are a new frontier of technology to reduce emissions and also enable savings on fuel costs
- While electric vehicles for transportation have been rapidly gaining adoption they have yet to crossover into other areas of opportunity such as agriculture
Who is making moves:
- California based startup Monarch Tractors has developed a fully electric tractor that can also be self driving
- Monarch also has leading edge artificial intelligence technology to allow you to monitor your tractor and see real time data around operations
- Monarch claims their tractors can be used in agriculture, vineyards, orchards and even solar farms
Going deeper:
- Autonomous tractors represent a huge opportunity given the remote locations of many farms and the sheer size of many agriculture properties which often require multiple tractors operating at the same time
By the numbers:
- Switching from fuel powered tractors to electric tractors reduces approximately 50 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, per tractor
The intrigue:
- Monarch Tractors recently signed a deal to supply Constellation Brands with their electric tractors
- The cameras and sensors attached to Monarch’s tractors are powered by Nvidia’s computing platform
