first electric ute, by Chinese manufacturer LDV, arrived in Australia in early 2023<\/a>, but it fell short of meeting the needs of most farmers.<\/p>\nThe dual cab, two-wheel drive had a 330-kilometre range and a 1 tonne towing capacity.<\/p>\n
The new Ford electric ute has been labelled a “game changer” by a farmer, with 550 kilometres of range on one charge and a towing capacity of 4.5 tonnes.<\/p>\n
It also comes with a hefty price tag of $170,000.<\/p>\n
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Farmers have expressed interest in the new electric ute. (ABC Rural: Warwick Long)<\/p>\n
What do farmers need?<\/p>\n
Research engineer with the Kondinin Group Ben White said farmers needed to have confidence an electric ute would replace what they used now.<\/p>\n
“Any Australian farmer that’s looking at an EV will say, ‘Is it like for like? Does it do what my existing diesel ute can do?'” Mr White said.<\/p>\n
“We need to make sure we’ve got sufficient range before we either need to refuel or recharge it and we need to be able to tow or carry an equivalent load.”<\/p>\n
Mr White said the new ute with the increased capacity was an “exciting” development and would be “pretty interesting to watch”.<\/p>\n
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Ben White says the increased capacity of the new Ford electric ute will suit farmers. (Supplied: Kondinin Group)<\/p>\n
EV investment pays off for some<\/p>\n
Marcus James is no stranger to electric vehicles.<\/p>\n
The beef and sheep farmer from Tasmania already has an electric side-by-side for moving animals and a personal EV.<\/p>\n
“We went to solar for our irrigation \u2026 and that’s led us to say, ‘How can we utilise that power we’re not using?'” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr James went for a test drive in the new Ford electric ute at the recent Farmers for Climate Action, Farming Forever Summit in Canberra.<\/p>\n
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Marcus James is keen to be able to use an electric ute on his farm in Tasmania. (ABC Rural: Warwick Long)<\/p>\n
“It’s really quiet, it’s a nice atmosphere to be in,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s big, but on the farm you need a big truck to get the job done.”<\/p>\n
He said he could see the economic benefits of the investment.<\/p>\n
“If you look at the energy use that we do and we can get from our solar set-up, I think it pays for itself over time,” he said.<\/p>\n
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Susan Findlay Tickner says the new electric ute is a “game changer”. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Victorian farmer Susan Findlay Tickner was also interested in the new electric ute.<\/p>\n
“It’s great to see a ute in that form. I’ve only ever driven one electric vehicle before and it’s very responsive,” Ms Findlay Tickner said.<\/p>\n
“This ute has got a 550km range, which is a bit of a game changer for us because it does mean we can drive from our home to the city without having to charge it halfway.<\/p>\n
“I think there’s going to be few farmers driving them around.”<\/p>\n
Uptake of EV utes to take ‘some time’<\/p>\n
Mr White said EV technology was changing rapidly and more options would be on the market in the future.<\/p>\n
“Battery technology continues to improve and it needs to, they’re pretty heavy things,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Having some developments in that area will probably see things propel at a greater speed as well.”<\/p>\n
The research engineer said although the Ford ute was “impressive” he was not expecting a big take-up by farmers.<\/p>\n
“There’ll be certainly circumstances where it will fit the brief and people might go down that path,” Mr White said.<\/p>\n
“[But] I think the majority of utes parked at a field days, for example, for some time to come will still be diesel utes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Electric vehicles are fast finding their place on Australian roads but it is still rare to see them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,17046,11214,92411,92410,92409,92408,92407,92413,92412],"class_list":["post-133704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-electric-ute","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-ev-power","tag-ev-range","tag-ev-ute","tag-farm-evs","tag-farm-vehicles","tag-ford-f150-lightning","tag-lvd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}