State of the Art and Future Trends of Electrification in Agricultural Tractors

Hybrid and electric powertrains are experiencing a consistent growth in the automotive field demonstrating their effectiveness in reducing pollutant emissions especially in urban areas. Recently these technologies started to be investigated in the field of work machineries as possible solution to meet increasingly stricter regulations on pollutant emissions. The construction field was the first to recognize the benefits of a partial or total electrification of a work machinery. Nowadays, the consolidation of the technology allowed for its consistent diffusion in the more conservative agricultural field where manufacturers are struggling to meet emissions regulations without losing in terms of work performance. Tractors manufacturers are the most affected actors because of the difficulty to integrate bulky gas aftertreatment systems on board of their vehicle. In this direction, searching for a better way of improving vehicle efficiency, they started to consider partial or total electrification of the tractor powertrain. However, there is still a great debate on the most suitable configuration of the electric components within a traditional powertrain. The literature is constantly focusing efforts to deepen the knowledge of hybrid electric powertrain performance in case of heavy-duty cycles in agricultural applications. In this work, an overview of the current state-of-the-art of electric and hybrid powertrain for agricultural tractors will be shown, looking at the key features and their pros and cons with respect to daily load scenarios.