Electric tractors as perfectly suited for small-scale agriculture at least. The proof comes from a 2003 issue [PDF] of the Northeast Organic Farm Association’s Natural Farmer newsletter, republished here. Yes, it’s true, says the author, electric tractors are designed for mowing and light work. But people have also been converting diesel tractors to electric for real farm use with great results:

Ron Khosla, a small-scale organic farmer in New York state has converted an Allis Chalmers G to electric and told me “Our electric ‘G’ is absolutely the most important tractor on the farm. It has three times the power of the original ‘G’ which is huge and [has] enough battery life to do everything we need to on our diversified 8-acre farm… It’s totally silent. You can creep along MUCH more slowly than we could with gas. It’s silent. It doesn’t smell. It’s NO MAINTENANCE…

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