The project for the development of full-hybrid and full-electric tractors presented in Bologna as part of EIMA. In addition to Antonio Carraro, the working group involves the research bodies ERO and Ecothea, and the Conegliano Valdobbiadene consortium, and benefits from EU funding under the Life project.
Not many Italian agricultural machinery manufacturers mEIanage to win European funding for a specific project dedicated to the development of new machines. This happened with the Atena project (Advanced Tractors with Electric implemeNts for Agricultural green revolution), with Antonio Carraro as project leader, which has received funding of 3.2 million euro across 36 months from the European Life programme. The project was presented this afternoon in Bologna at EIMA International, at a conference aimed at journalists and agro-mechanics technicians. In addition to Antonio Carraro, three strategic partners are taking part in the Atena project, who will share responsibility for the project: ERO for equipment in the wine-growing sector and Ecothea (a start-up of the Turin Polytechnic) as the partners representing applied research, and the Consortium for the protection of Conegliano Valdobbiadone Prosecco Docg, Italy’s wine-growing excellence, which will field-test the innovations proposed by the manufacturers.
As the acronym suggests, these innovations will share the trait of electrification, which is the key aspect of the experimental project and which will draw attention at EIMA, an exhibition that is particularly attentive to what is happening on the motor front and to the development of alternative solutions to current engines.
The electrification of agricultural machinery – this emerged during the meeting – is one of the drives for the development of the sector in the coming years. The fact that four companies, which are already committed to the environmental sustainability of their activities, have won a European call for tenders and have formed a consortium appears to be particularly interesting for the entire agricultural mechanisation sector.
The project will lead to the construction of a full-hybrid and a full-electric tractor, starting from a remodelled Antonio Carraro Srx articulated model, and will result in the production of five types of equipment, branded ERO: a defoliator, a pruning machine, a pre-pruner, a mounted sprayer and a cultivator with blade weeder. All of this – as mentioned – will have a direct outlet in the important Valdobbiadene wine-growing consortium.
The presentation at Eima was attended by the protagonists of the Atena project: Damiano De Checchi and Franco Gazzola, technicians from Antonio Carraro, Ignaz Weber from ERO and Aurelio Somà from Ecothea-Politecnico di Torino.
The electrified machines are expected to come onto the market towards the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025, with the unknown factor of cost, on which Somà spoke: “No one at this moment can say with certainty how much more the electrified machine will cost and the exact amount of savings. The only truly electric machine that has come onto the market, used in animal husbandry, has a price differential of less than 20%. On these values, the Atena project is viable and should be pursued”. This analysis is fully supported by Liliana Carraro, communications manager of the Padua-based group.
