Porsche’s all-electric ‘Mission E tractor’ shouldn’t be an April fools joke

For April fools yesterday, Porsche sent out a press release unveiling the all-electric ‘Mission E tractor’ – a tractor built by leveraging the Mission E’s electric powertrain.

The German automaker quickly said that it was a joke and “of course, the Mission E tractor will not be built,” but it’s not clear what is funny about it since someone should actually build that tractor.

Electrek’s Take

Like I wrote yesterday about Elon Musk’s April fools joke, I’m not the biggest fan of April fools pranks, especially when they are purposely made to be perceived as real by a reasonable person.

If you read the press release, it could very well and should be a real product aside maybe from the mention of the acceleration:

“Porsche AG is delighted to announce the latest addition to the Mission E model line. Following the successful debut of the Mission E Cross Turismo at the 2018 Geneva International Motor Show, Porsche is heading even further off road with the all-electric Mission E Tractor.

This bold vision for 21st Century agriculture blends design cues from Porsche’s original mid 1950s tractors with the same advanced digital connectivity and 800v fast-charging architecture that powers the Mission E.

With a power output in excess of 700hp, the Mission E Tractor will be the fastest accelerating agricultural vehicle in the world, enabling farmers to harvest crops in record time with the added environmental benefits of zero emissions at source and significantly reduced operating noise.”

I really don’t see why this should be a joke since it absolutely makes sense to transition tractors to electric powertrains and Porsche fast-charging technology could actually help make it happen.

Electric motors can certainly offer enough torque for the needed capacity of tractors and with improvements in battery technology, the use time and charging capacity are starting to make sense.

Porsche wrote:

“Porsche is confident that the combination of tradition and innovation – and enough power to set a pretty good lap time on the Nordschleife – will make the Mission E Tractor a runaway sales success.”

Of course, it’s not really Porsche’s kind of product, but I think it actually could be a good seller.

Farmers are always looking for ways to cut costs and fuel and maintenance for their vehicles are a big ones.

They are also often very aware of the impact of pollution on the environment, which affects their business significantly. Therefore, they could be more inclined to buy a less polluting solution to work their fields.

John Deere has an all-electric tractor prototype for zero-emission agriculture, but it has so far made no plan to bring the vehicle to production.

Someone should definitely make it happen.