Italian machinery manufacturer Antonio Carraro is spearheading a push towards the electrification of tractors and implements.
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Last year the company revealed its SRX Hybrid, a diesel/electric tractor suitable for use in vineyards and orchards.
It is now teaming up with three partners on the ATENA project (Advanced tractors with electric implements for agricultural green revolution).
Antonio Carraro will work with German implement and harvester manufacturer ERO and Italian university Turin Polytechnic's start-up Ecothea on applied research.
Innovations from the group will be field tested by the enterprise group Consortium for the Protection of Conegliano Valdobbiadone Prosecco Docg.
The project has received 3.2 million euros (A$4.9 million) in funding from the European Life program, which will be delivered over 36 months.
Plans to develop a full hybrid and full electric tractor as well as electrified implements were presented to the public on the first day of EIMA International in Bologna this month.
The group's aim is to reduce emissions through the use of electrified agricultural machinery.
They will start with a remodelled Antonio Carraro SRX articulated tractor and five pieces of equipment from ERO - a defoliator, a pruning machine, a pre-pruner, a mounted sprayer and a cultivator with blade weeder.
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Antonio Carraro research and development director and engineer Damiano De Checchi said the project underlined and reinforced the pathway the company had been following towards sustainability.
"It represents acceleration towards the next technological phase," he said.
"A 'jump forward', as our late president Antonio Carraro loved to define each important technological evolution, that would lead us to a new corporate transformation in readiness for any future challenges coming our way."
Consorzio di tutela del Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Docg director Diego Tomasi said participating in the ATENA project would provide a double opportunity.
"The first is the high level of professionalism offered by the other partners and the second is the concrete opportunity to test out prototypes which will certainly change the driving force in our vineyards in the near future," he said.
"The wine-growing world is also rapidly adapting to themes concerning environmental sustainability: greater respect for the ecosystem, such as a massive reduction in the use of pesticides and herbicides alongside the reduction of CO2 emissions, will lead to carbon free vineyard management".
Ecothea founding partner Professor Aurelio Somà said at present no one could say with certainty how much more electrified machines would cost and the exact amount of savings.
While the cost of the machines is unknown, they are expected to come onto the market at the end of 2024 or in early 2025.
"The only truly electric machine that has come onto the market, used in animal husbandry, has a price differential of less than 20 per cent," he said.
"On these values, the ATENA project is viable and should be pursued."
