L ast month, Irish Farmers Journal machinery correspondent Gary Abbott wrote about a 70hp John Deere 5070M tractor that was converted to run on electricity for Bord na Móna and debuted at the National Ploughing Championships. Since then, we’ve received a number of questions about this process, so we decided to catch up with the man behind the conversion, Mike Keane, to learn more about it.
Mike is the founder of Hibra Design, a company that specialises in converting vehicles to battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell powertrains as well as developing bespoke vehicle solutions.
Can any vehicle be converted?
Mike explained that, technically, nearly any vehicle can be converted from running on conventional fossil fuels such as diesel to using an electric power source.
However, when you start to look at different vehicles, you find new challenges that you have to deal with he said. Every machine is different, so it takes careful engineering do the conversion. He said there are two big elements which determines if it is viable to convert a vehicle.
The first question is: what runtime is needed for the vehicle? This determines the size of the batteries and the available charging time.
The next is the technical challenge of getting the control systems to tech talk to each other. “You have a control system that is looking for engine which isn’t there, but that’s Ok, you just have to integrate it” Mike said.
He said this typically requires designing new programmes to get the tractor and the system to interact with each other, or possibly reprogramming it altogether.
Getting information on the tractor model from the manufacturer to help with this can be difficult if not nearly impossible however. “In this case we needed to reverse engineer the machine, but this is something that we are good at” he said.
Why convert?
When asked why a farmer or company would switch to electric machinery, he explained that the main driver is the difference in fuel costs between diesel and electricity.
On average, electricity costs about one-third as much as diesel, making it a major commercial incentive. However, he added that reducing carbon emissions is also an important factor for many companies. Both the potential for cost savings and carbon reductions on farms become even more significant when farmers can produce their own renewable electricity on-site to run the machine.
Mike also said that electric machines can offer technical advantages. For instance, both power and torque can increase with electric systems.
In the John Deere example, the electric model achieved twice the torque and 30% more power. He said that they could have gone even higher, but performance had to be limited because they were uncertain whether the machine could handle the additional load.
Operational time
Mike explained that he often receives inquiries from people interested in converting to electric, but many express concern that their vehicles need to operate all day, which is a common limitation associated with electricity vehicles. However, he said that the perceived and actual operating times of vehicles can differ significantly.
Typically, when starting a project, Mike conducts an analysis of the vehicle’s operation by recording its actual runtime, power and torque requirements.
This data is then entered into their bespoke software to determine whether electrification is feasible.
A good example of this, he said, was a feasibility study carried out for Iarnród Éireann, which operates a fleet of terminal tractors in Rosslare. Although they were initially told that the tractors ran for most of the day, the recorded runtime data revealed otherwise.
After analysing the results, the team found that it would be possible to electrify 98% of their operations. The same principle applies for certain vehicles on the farm.
Bord na Móna’s John Deere runs on a 55kWh battery pack which allows a continuous runtime of up to 2.5 hours while a larger 110kWh option is available, offering twice the run time at five hours.
Using DC fast charging, charge time of the standard battery takes 60 minutes he said.
Vehicle age
When asked what type of vehicle is most suitable for conversion, given that new vehicles are usually still under warranty and converting them would void it, Mike said there is a sweet spot.
“Ideally, the vehicle should be out of warranty, but not so old that it requires major refurbishment,” he explained.
Cost
Mike explained that the cost of conversion depends on many factors and can vary widely. For a vehicle, depending on the type, it may cost between €40,000 and €70,000 to complete a single conversion.
However, for operators with multiple vehicles, the cost per unit decreases once the first conversion is completed, as that initial process involves all the reverse engineering and design work required to understand how to electrify the model.
After that, the same approach can be replicated more efficiently across the rest of the fleet.
He added that while these are broad estimates with many variables, the expected return on investment typically ranges between four and seven years.
Not just retrofits
Mike explained that, in addition to retrofitting, they also design bespoke vehicles built to customer specifications.
In the agricultural sector, Mike said they currently have two ongoing projects on farms. One project involves developing a machine to improve the efficiency of feeding on a dairy calve to beef farm. He estimates the machine could increase efficiency by around 30%.
Another project is taking place on a poultry farm, where they are building a machine to reduce the turnaround time between batches of birds by 40 to 50%.
Mike said they are also developing a mobile power plant that replaces the traditional motor control system with an electric unit, able to operate independently or integrate with a tractor. It is expected to be ready by mid-2026.
Another area is autonomous vehicles, which Mike sees as a major opportunity in agriculture over the next five years. The company is beginning with robotic and remote-controlled models, with plans to progress to fully autonomous electric machines.