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Barrier to entry in Ag is the dealerships. Deere has the best US dealership network for heavy equipment outside of CAT. It is Ok if your Tesla is in the shop fo

Barrier to entry in Ag is the dealerships. Deere has the best US dealership network for heavy equipment outside of CAT. It is Ok if your Tesla is in the shop for a few weeks getting fixed, but for Ag equipment, even a few hours at the wrong time is super painful. Deere has parts for 20yr old equipment and their own freight trucks, don't overlook this advantage.

vvanders 6y ago
Its definitely a factor, most people I know out here who bale run multiple tractors so they can handle one or two in the shop if it's during a critical time. We've got a Kubota CUT, when rats chewed out the writing harness we were 4 weeks before we had it up and running even with insurance + dealership. Personally I'd love to see someone come in and clean house. Weight and torque are the two things you want in a tractor and electric has both in spades. I think tractors in the CUT space where hydrostatic transmission are common would make a really good fit since you can basically eliminate the HST.
- sangnoir 6y ago
  I doubt anyone will come in and "clean house" - especially not from a VC-funded startup. The (oft-subsidized) money is just too good to "leave on the table". The best we can hope for, are solid Right-to-repair laws that make DRM illegal/possible to bypass to at least allow custom firmware
  - vvanders 6y ago
    I dunno, in the CUT space you've got the 3-point hitch, SSQA, hydraulic remotes and a bunch of other standards that make implements pretty interchangeable. Makes brand lock-in pretty difficult. If I had the option for either a pure-electric or diesel-electric I would have seriously considered it. At least in our case the workload is a lot of hauling, intermittent groundwork and field mowing(<10ac) all of which would have fit really well. Also all the JD DRM stuff only applies in the larger 100hp+ market. In the SCUT/CUT/Utility Tractor market there's a fairly robust set of companies(Kubota, LS, JD, Mahindra, Yanmar, etc).
- jfim 6y ago
  CUT and SCUT in this context mean compact utility tractor and subcompact utility tractor. This article [0] has pictures and discusses differences between the two. [0] https://www.tractor.com/features/scut-vs-cut-1722/ https://www.tractor.com/features/scut-vs-cut-1722/
dieselerator 6y ago
I agree the dealer is important, but they don't make parts. I have a Deere a little over 20 years old, and many parts are unavailable.
deleted 6y ago
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vvanders 6y ago

Its definitely a factor, most people I know out here who bale run multiple tractors so they can handle one or two in the shop if it's during a critical time. We've got a Kubota CUT, when rats chewed out the writing harness we were 4 weeks before we had it up and running even with insurance + dealership. Personally I'd love to see someone come in and clean house. Weight and torque are the two things you want in a tractor and electric has both in spades. I think tractors in the CUT space where hydrostatic transmission are common would make a really good fit since you can basically eliminate the HST.

sangnoir 6y ago
I doubt anyone will come in and "clean house" - especially not from a VC-funded startup. The (oft-subsidized) money is just too good to "leave on the table". The best we can hope for, are solid Right-to-repair laws that make DRM illegal/possible to bypass to at least allow custom firmware
- vvanders 6y ago
  I dunno, in the CUT space you've got the 3-point hitch, SSQA, hydraulic remotes and a bunch of other standards that make implements pretty interchangeable. Makes brand lock-in pretty difficult. If I had the option for either a pure-electric or diesel-electric I would have seriously considered it. At least in our case the workload is a lot of hauling, intermittent groundwork and field mowing(<10ac) all of which would have fit really well. Also all the JD DRM stuff only applies in the larger 100hp+ market. In the SCUT/CUT/Utility Tractor market there's a fairly robust set of companies(Kubota, LS, JD, Mahindra, Yanmar, etc).
jfim 6y ago
CUT and SCUT in this context mean compact utility tractor and subcompact utility tractor. This article [0] has pictures and discusses differences between the two. [0] https://www.tractor.com/features/scut-vs-cut-1722/ https://www.tractor.com/features/scut-vs-cut-1722/

dieselerator 6y ago

I agree the dealer is important, but they don't make parts. I have a Deere a little over 20 years old, and many parts are unavailable.

deleted 6y ago

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