Soletrac electric tractor company out of business

The author's explanation of the tractor pretty much proves why it didn't sell:

Fit and finish appears very professional...

It boasts considerable tractive effort...

It's comfort issue (seat) was resolved, albeit not immediately

But it's major faults seal fate:

PTO operation is crippled by design- if you want 540rpm PTO, you have only 3 ground speeds, and only one operates at a working speed.

Run time between charges at a PTO load is 1.5hrs.  Entirely useless for tractor work.

Hydraulics are slow.

It doesn't matter how quiet, comfortable, pretty, or 'environmentally concious' it is, if it WONT DO WORK WHILE THE SUN SHINES.

What do they do?

Fix the capacity problem.  No less than 13 hours' full work time between recharges, OR... Make it charge in under 5 minutes.  (5 minutes is how long it takes to refill a fuel tank).

Fix the road-speed/work speed/PTO problem.  Independant PTO motor, variable speed traction motor.

Higher-capacity hydraulics EVERYWHERE... including steering (just in case they overlook that).

Clearly, one of the design weaknesses is evidenced by the hydraulics-  they're running constantly, that's the whine.  They don't need to, they need an accumulator, a sensor, and detector switches on the valving.  That'll reduce battery burn, too.

Yes, Louis- you're right-  from the field, with a fuel truck...  but even my Kubota BX, which although it doesn't have the battery weight to help generate the electric's drawbar FORCE, is significantly capable of more work, both PTO and hydraulic, because it's 6ish-gallon diesel tank will run it full-snot for every bit of 8 hours, and I can put another 6 in it from the trunk of a car in that 5 minutes, and be on for another 8 hours.

It all comes down to energy density.  A 24kw/hr electric battery system weighs around 500lbs, and the electric traction motor, driveline, and electronics for that setup come to about 1000lbs... and if you run it AS a 24KW (32hp) drive, you'll be at full discharge in one hour.  16hp in two... but you're best off not running that battery below 25%, lest it's service life go to heck, so that means you're looking at 8hp for 2.5hrs before a charge.

The BX-1800 in my driveway will run at 18hp and no matter how fast I empty the tank, a refill brings it right back to where it was.  6 gallons of diesel equates to 720,000btu/hr or 211kw/hrs per tank.  At 10% efficiency, that's 21kw/hrs of mechanical power... so one 6gal tank is significantly more energy, in only 42 pounds of weight.

The electric tractor simply cannot beat that empirical reality.