Quiet, connected and heavily subsidised in some regions, battery-electric tractors are edging out of the demo plot. The question now is whether they can survive real-world economics, not just glossy brochures.
Just after sunrise on a farm outside Bengaluru, a compact 27-horsepower tractor sits tethered to a wall-mounted charger. There is no clatter of a diesel engine warming up, no blue haze of exhaust; only the click of relays and the distant sound of irrigation pumps.
The machine is built by Moonrider, a young Indian manufacturer that has just closed a US$6 million Series A round led by deep-tech investor pi Ventures,
