Farming smarter with technology
The National Fieldays is an annual fixture in the farming calendar: it draws in thousands of farmers, contractors, and industry professionals from across the country.
While there seems to be a feeding frenzy for hybrid or electric cars of late, there’s no such madness for the humble ute.
That’s probably because, despite the electric powerhouses like Tesla or Rivian making lots of promises, to date they haven’t come to the party.
Now it looks like they’ve both been trumped, with SAIC Motor and subsidiary LDV showing the first electric ute available for purchase in New Zealand.
The LDV EVT60 is based around its sibling bi-turbo diesel T60, first seen in NZ a few years ago. Currently only available in rear wheel drive only, a 130kW, single motor set-up delivers 310 Nm torque and a 325km range, using a 88.5kW battery pack located under the centre of the vehicle.
Scheduled for production in September 2022 in China, the first examples available to drive away should land by the end of the year or early 2023. While final pricing and spec is just a little vague, the company has confirmed that it will be below $80,000 meaning it will attract the clean vehicle subsidy that currently sits at $8,625.
The double-cab format with a conventional rear well-side deck has a load rating of 900kg with a towing capacity of 1,000kg.
The company notes that using the vehicle at its maximum towing capacity will reduce its overall range by around 50%. Charging is AC or DC and safety specifications will include autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, rear camera, radar and stability control.
Vehicles can be reserved with a refundable $1,000 deposit at the LDV NZ website:
www.ldv.co.nz.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).
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