Last year US farm machinery giant AGCO showed the E-RoGator, a version of its existing self-propelled sprayer featuring a unique hybrid driveline. We travelled across the Atlantic to Florida to drive the first prototype.
How often do you look at something new and wonder exactly why nobody has come up with it before? The E-RoGator gets along courtesy of four big electric wheel motors, powered by an engine-driven generator. And although the Victorians arrived there first — the notion of throwing out a mechanical transmission in favour of electric hub motor(s) kicked off in the late 1800s — the E-RoGator’s smart fusion of electric and diesel power would make those old engineers smile with pleasure.
Hybrid electric brings to mind cars like Toyota’s Prius and its clones, but those aren’t quite the same thing: driveshafts still take power out to the wheels from an engine, generator and a power-split gearbox, while
storage batteries can power the car entirely if required at low forward speeds. The E-RoGator uses a diesel engine, wheel motors and no batteries. In itself this isn’t ground-breaking, but, even ten years ago, electric motors of the required output were very big and expensive — and the control systems needed to make them co-operate just weren’t around.
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