For farmers and land managers, the idea of saving thousands of dollars each year on diesel fuel is an appealing proposition. Substantial fuel savings is certainly one of the immediate attractions of investing in and deploying an electric tractor, especially when those savings add up to outpace the purchase price and total operating cost of a comparable diesel tractor. After working on farms for two full growing seasons, the MK-V, a battery-powered tractor, has amassed over 60,000 hours of use, saving farmers nearly $1 million in fuel savings. But the beauty of an electric tractor is its ability to leverage electrification into savings in other ways.
Across ag and land management enterprises, deploying electric farm equipment and robotic technology platforms is shifting from a hopeful concept to a proven strategy for profitability and sustainability. As the world’s first 100% electric, driver-optional, and smart tractor manufacturer, Monarch has integrated an array of additional savings that bolsters your return on investment through electrification.
Higher Quality Crops
Consumers today are actively engaged in monitoring their environmental footprint, demanding products from suppliers that support human health and protect resources. By controlling weeds with zero-emission mowing, an electric tractor appeals to end consumers and farmers alike.
The absence of air pollutants prevents harmful particulate matter from building up on a crop or harvest, resulting in a purer, premium-grade product and enhanced air quality for both workers and the ecosystem. By minimizing or eliminating the costs associated with herbicide purchases, coupled with superior crop quality, ag and broad acre enterprises can support both their sustainability goals and profit margins on top of diesel savings.
First season [2023] where our vineyard operations were 100% emissions free. Our grapes taste even better with no diesel fumes.
Kia Behnia, Co-founder, NEOTEMPO Wines & KIATRA Vineyard
The MK-V’s compatibility with a farm’s current set of mowing and cultivating implements brings additional ease to integrating an electric tractor into your equipment ecosystem. The MK-V also integrates with the implements currently used in broad acre land management.
Exportable Power
Having a tractor battery means having a power source. The engineers at Monarch took great care to optimize a battery-powered tractor’s inherent electrification by turning it into a mobile power wall. When the electricity goes down on a farm, the MK-V can power critical equipment, ensuring continuity of operations. The 12-volt, 110-volt, and 220-volt plugs are all easily controlled on the MK-V’s smart screen with a simple finger tap.
A battery-powered tractor doubling as a mobile power wall can also save money. Anyone whose power supplier utilizes dynamic rates can charge their MK-V electric tractor during the window when the lowest rates are offered, then use that lower cost energy to power other electric farm machinery or work the fields. In 2024, Monarch entered a grant-funded alliance to deploy charging technology on rural locations that responds to dynamic grid signals, thus helping farmers and land managers take advantage of dynamic rates, saving money while meeting their workload needs.
Agriculture Grant Money
When farmers and land managers choose electrification, they are eligible for valuable agriculture grant money and financial incentives that lower the price of the MK-V electric tractor. With subsidies, cost concerns over how much is a tractor are tempered with an expedited return on their investment. For years, game-changing incentives for agriculture have been available for off-road electric machinery in California through the widely successful CORE and Carl Moyer subsidy programs. Now the nationwide Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP program) is available to states across the U.S. that opt into the EQIP program.
The EQIP program’s vital incentives allow farmers and land managers to leverage their natural resource concerns into profitability. In some cases, the tractor can practically pay for itself in under four years. This becomes particularly attractive when paired with Monarch’s industry-leading warranty, which covers the tractor, bumper-to-bumper, for four years or 4,000 miles, while the MK-V tractor battery is covered for eight years or 8,000 miles, whichever comes first.
Beyond Electrification
Many of these electrification savings reflect Monarch’s dedication to farmer-first solutions with AgTech that solves real problems. Just as the MK-V is more than a tractor, it’s also more than an electric tractor. It’s an energy and data platform, bringing an array of time and money-saving features to farms and broad-acre enterprises. Whether its pushing feed to dairy cows or mowing between rows of vines, berries or even solar panels, Monarch’s MK-V is an electric tractor with meaningful, measurable ROI. Let the MK-V spark your interest in electrification in ag!
