ELECTRIC TRACTORS AND SUSTAINABILITY: EMERGING TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS AND RESEARCH GAP

Resumo

The tractor is the primary machine used in agriculture, performing essential tasks such as soil preparation, crop management, spraying, and the transportation of agricultural products. Mostly powered by diesel-fueled internal combustion engines (ICEs), a dominant technology that has several drawbacks: it produces significant noise pollution, contributes to soil contamination and atmospheric pollution, and emits greenhouse gases (GHGs) through the combustion of fossil fuels. Moreover, diesel tractors operate with low energy efficiency; up to 60% of the fuel’s energy content is lost as waste heat rather than converted into useful work. Electric tractors (ETs) have emerged as a promising alternative to address these issues. By using electricity (ideally from renewable sources) to power high-efficiency electric motors, ETs can reduce emissions and energy losses while transmitting power more effectively to the tractor’s working interfaces (wheels, power take-off (PTO), hydraulic pumps, etc.). Several commercial ET models are now available, although this technology remains relatively new to the market. This study aims to map the scientific literature on ETs with a focus on sustainability, using bibliometric analysis to identify research trends, key authors, prevalent keywords, contributing countries, and leading institutions. It also highlights emerging versus declining research themes and identifies gaps to understand how the academic community is approaching this new technology. The results indicate that recent research has focused on topics such as fuel-cell-powered tractors, automation and robotics, real-time data analysis, and data mining. The countries contributing the most publications on this topic include China (55 publications), Italy (45), Germany (18), Iran (18), Austria (12), Romania (8), the United States (8), and Brazil (7). Overall, studies consistently position ETs as a viable solution to mitigate the negative externalities of conventional diesel tractors, particularly by reducing or eliminating the use of fossil fuels.