Together in Elec-Trak dreams: What the Rise and Fall of an Electric Pioneer Teaches Modern AgTech Innovators

Elec-Trak was a General Electric (GE) company that was the result of some experiments GE had been carrying out into electric cars in the late 1960s. GE noticed that some of the drawbacks of electric cars, weight, range and speed could be beneficial in a tractor design. After some initial R&D work the first few Elec-Trak prototypes were shown to dealers in 1969. The GE team started with a very modest 40000 square foot production facility and by 1973 this had grown 20X in size.

The tractors themselves had a variety of electric motors for propulsion (the highest power being 16hp) and six 6v batteries to provide a total of 36v. GE developed a huge variety of different attachments including mowers, chainsaws, inverters, sickle bar mowers and even agricultural sprayers. With most of the attachments being electrically driven from the battery, making the most of the portable battery power and modularity of the system.

Elec-Trak was a relatively short lived company with the company ultimately sold off in 1974 to the Wheelhorse company.

So why was Elec-Trak so short lived as a company and what can it teach us about developing new technologies?

📉- Market conditions in 1973 were not ideal, inflation was running at 6.2% in 1973 and this jumped to 11% in 1974 (this makes the inflation figures of today look very tame).This put huge pressure on household budgets and serious limits on consumer spending power. This lead to a period of deep economic recession that dampened sales.

💸- GE sold the Elec-Trak tractors on consignment to dealers and had to wait for dealers to sell machines before any cash made its way back to GE.

💡- Electric vehicle technology was in relative infancy and while the concept and use case made a huge amount of sense, consumers were too used to the performance and use case for gasoline (petrol) powered equipment.

Lessons that can be learned from Elec-Trak:

How does Elec-trac compare to modern electric tractor companies such as Monarch tractors? Well in some ways it is an unfair comparison, while both machines are electric, the markets they are selling into are quite different. Elec-Trak was aimed at consumers and hobbyists where-as Monarch sells to farmers and growers running businesses. Meaning that the use-case, financing and sales strategy will be very different too.

However there are some lessons that can be learned from a comparison between Monarch tractors and the Elec-Trak:

Implements- The Elec-Trak had a range of different attachments that were ahead of their time, with extremely efficient electric motor drives. This however limited the interoperability with existing PTO or hydraulic drive machinery. Monarch on the other hand has a PTO and hydraulics systems, allowing the tractor to be used with existing machinery, making the most of machinery farmers already have, making adoption much simpler.

Additional Value Propositions - Monarch tractors don’t sell tractors solely on electric propulsion, they combine capabilities such as fleet management software and autonomy with their product offering allowing the sum of the parts to be greater than the individual pieces. Elek-Trak was simply a hardware offering that was able to capitalise on a compelling use case for batteries and electric drive.

Battery technology - Elec-Trak was limited by the lead acid battery technology of the era meaning a comparatively low power density when compared to the lithium ion technology being used by the likes of Monarch tractors. Lithium Ion batteries could have raised the operational time for the Elec-Trac and perhaps helped to secure the Elect-Trak as a legitimate competitor to gasoline powered garden tractors.

Funding - Monarch Tractors has recently received a Series C investment of $133 Million that is set to propel the company to new heights. Elec-Trak had the benefit of being an internal GE start-up funded with a generous but comparatively modest $772000 ($6.6Million in today's money). Perhaps Elec-Trak would have fared better if it had been able to raise external funding rather than being dependent on GE to stay afloat?

Cash flow strategy - Elec-trak was burned by consignment sales to dealerships and the loss of margins and limits to cash flow that this caused. Monarch has a direct to farmer sales cash flow strategy that means Monarch can retain good margins on hardware sales. Monarch also has a subscription strategy for some of its software products and services.

So, to conclude Elec-Trak was a technology ahead of its time with a range of electric tools and technology designed to make the most of an electrically driven tractor platform and a very compelling use case. However, the company was caught out by harsh economic conditions that exposed fragile business models that limited cash flow. Today's electric tractor manufacturers have had over 50 years of battery development to help propel their machinery. Companies like Monarch tractors have been able to see the upsides of blending new technology such as autonomy with old technology such as three point linkages, PTOs and hydraulics to provide versatility between tools and tasks. While at the same time offering direct sales offerings that help keep margins high and cash flow positive, even in harsh economic times.

Check out: https://myelec-traks.com/ for more information about the history of Elec-Trak and the tractors themselves.