The first Ukrainian electric tractor is ready for mass production (video)
Despite the war and the difficult conditions for launching production, a small company called ElectroAgroTechnica from Drohobych, Lviv Oblast, has begun developing and has already passed state tests of the Kolos 244 electric tractor.
The electric tractor of traction class 0.6 (25-30 hp) is based on a small-sized diesel model Shifeng from China, according to the UkrRTIIPVT. Л. The burned one. This simplified the development, as the chassis, transmission, controls, front and stern systems for the attachments needed only partial modification for the electric traction version.
Although there was a lot of work to adapt the diesel version to the electric version, the company’s engineers successfully coped with this task. They brought a lot of their own solutions and even some know-how into the redesigned model. This has expanded and reduced the operational potential of the battery machine in municipal and agricultural operations.
The Kolos 244K tractor is all-wheel drive. With 25 hp, it can work in a utility company with a frontal earth/snow plow, a forage sweeper, a mower, a branch shredder, or pull a drawbar trailer with repair equipment or cargo. The power take-off shaft delivers a whopping 9 revolutions per second, or 540 rpm.
The battery machines are manufactured at the Drohobych-based ElektroAgroTechnika plant.
In agricultural production, an electric tractor can be used in small farms and private households for plowing, disking, harrowing, fertilizing crops, or harvesting fodder. It will also come in handy for transporting goods in a trailer – one and a half to two tons can be transported even on muddy roads.
The economic calculations are quite striking. In operations where the original diesel tractor burns 1 liter of diesel fuel, the electric tractor consumes 2-3 kWh of electricity, which is 10 times cheaper at current prices.
For small rural communities, private households, and farmers, this will be a strong argument for attractiveness. However, for municipal utilities, management companies, landscaping and landscape companies, it will also be an environmentally friendly and cost-effective management tool.
The tractor has a semi-frame design with belt power transmission from the electric motor to the power transmission. An air-cooled, collectorless electric motor allows you to create forces on the motors to perform operations such as plowing, sowing, harvesting, mowing, and others in the unit with the appropriate tools.
A lithium iron-phosphate battery with a potential of 21.5 kWh (220V – 2.7 kW inverter) allows you to perform these works for a long time when fully charged. Tests have shown that the battery allows the electric tractor to operate for 8-9 hours in various operating processes. The vehicles are also available with solar panels installed as a kind of visor roof on the safety arches above the driver’s seat.
The specialists of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Intellectual Property and Technology. Л. Pohorilnyi, together with colleagues from the Lviv branch of his research institute, “tested and audited the production for compliance with the conditions for the manufacture of Kolos series electric tractors in accordance with the technical description and requirements of the Technical Regulations for the approval of the type of agricultural and forestry tractors, their trailers and interchangeable trailed machines, systems, components and individual technical units.”
The test results confirmed the compliance of the Kolos 244K electric tractor with the requirements of the Technical Regulations for Type Approval of Agricultural and Forestry Tractors, Their Trailers and Component Systems and Individual Technical Units, and the manufacturer was provided with a test report on the basis of which the type approval authority will issue a “Type Approval Certificate”.
