The Moline, Illinois-based agricultural equipment giant said in a recent news release from its European headquarters and tractor factory in Mannheim, Germany, the SESAM is “an elementary component of John Deere’s vision of future energy autonomous farms.”
John Deere, the maker of the iconic green tractor seen on American farms for over a century, has dabbled in alternative fuel sources for its full-sized agricultural tractors, including its Multifuel tractor which can use pure vegetable oil as fuel, instead of diesel, and the BatteryBoost, a hybrid traction tractor based on a battery exchange design.
The John Deere SESAM takes into account a lot of torque figures tractors require, plus, the SESAM is easy to recharge because, after all, most tractors go back to the same shed every night, making recharging convenient. And the electric tractor is low-maintenance, compared to diesel.
The SESAM uses a gutted out JD 6R with a huge battery pack under the hood and dual electric motors capable of giving you up to 130 kilowatts (174 horsepower) of continuous power. Electrek says this is a lot more energy than Tesla’s highest capacity battery pack (100 kWh)
The dual 150 kW electric motors can be set into three modes, with the drive all going to the wheels or to the power take-off shafts. Or better still, the drive can be split between the wheels and take-off shafts. Remember now, this is just a concept tractor, so its batteries only last for about four hours before they need recharging.
As NewAtlas reports, It’s not ready for the “big leagues” yet. But John Deere is really excited about the SESAM, and the real possibility of producing agricultural machinery that will give us zero-emissions.
