The motor world ready for the “green revolution”
Vehicles powered by environmentally friendly fuels are already a reality for tractor engine manufacturers. An important innovation in view of the likely changes that will be imposed by Brussels to reduce C02 emissions. At EIMA the sector's key players will be discussing Community strategies for environmental protection.
At EIMA, the international exhibition of agricultural and gardening machinery, currently being held in the halls of BolognaFiere, a debate is opening among operators in the agricultural sector to offer a contribution to Community strategies for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. A comparison in view of the turning points in the Community policy for environmental protection, which have not yet produced a deadline for the entry into force of the ban on the sale of endothermic engines for self-propelled agricultural vehicles. “For now, we are talking about working plans that are open to improvements that can be made by all the players in the agricultural world,” says Marco Pezzini, head of the EU policy sector of FederUnacona, the federation of Italian manufacturers. This is a somewhat reassuring message - which emerged at the 'Green Deal and Powertrain technology' meeting, promoted by the Italian magazine Macchine Trattori - in the face of recently circulated speculation that the ban should come into force in a binding manner as early as 2035. However, the agricultural machinery industry is ready to face the green revolution, as the companies in the sector confirm. “We are working on two lines of engine optimisation to make them run on environmentally friendly fuels,” explains Diego Rotti, Product Marketing Manager Off-Road at FptIndustrial, “but it will still take time to develop solutions based on hydrogen or electrification”. “In any case, there are already hybrid or methane engines with a lower environmental impact,” says Rotti. The road has been mapped out, as Stefano Fiorani, Tractor Innovation Manager at New HollandAgriculture, confirms. We are ready,” says Fiorani, “to meet the demands coming from Europe, our company has already put machines with methane engines into production and we have created a prototype of an electrified specialist tractor. Companies are already building the future. But they urge the European Commission's top management to remember that the agricultural sector has several souls, from animal husbandry to extensive farming to specialised farming. All sectors that use completely different machines and require different technologies. “Change - Pezzini concludes - should not frighten us. However, it is essential that companies work as a team”.
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