A landscaping crew would require more batteries and/or a method to charge on the go. Cost might be prohibitive to do that now but in time it might work out. Imagine if you have a large battery in a trailer that charges up all the small batteries between sites or solar on the roof.
Considering most landscaping work is done in the summer months maybe a move to a different Lithium chemistry that is cheaper but doesn’t like cold as much could be beneficial for pro tools.
Cost might be prohibitive to do that now but in time
I was being subtle in addressing this, but it’s spot on - the lawn maintenance working crews in question are all folks out trying to hustle and earn a living, these are not “outfits” with disposable income to invest in the electric future. Quite often the gear is bought/sold in pawn shops all over town, tools are probably the #1 item in any given pawn shop around here (followed by the usual jewelry, guns, etc disposable income items).
Tangent: I lived in CA (SF) for ~18yrs and recognize a lot of the names of the cities and what they’re generally like. “Rich”, “white” (light-skinned any race/culture), “affluent” are the words that came to mind. I dare say that many of these enacted bans are based on “those brown folks making too much noise in my pretty neighborhood.” $0.02
It probably depends on the batteries, battery market, and repair market. We don’t really expect batteries to last a decade. The repairability of these tools is a concern.
Meanwhile, it’s pretty common to repair gas tools. Sometimes from multiple broken ones. Powering the gas tools is similarly simple. None of it requires a company to continue to develop their proprietary product to run.
This is an industry and a market that has been around for decades. I suspect the limited part supply and limited repairability of the electric tools is going to limit their practical lifetime compared to the existing ones on the market.
Great point about repairability. I’ve seen some interesting videos of EV repairs on cars with odd pack issues. Very specialized work right now but assuming skills will develop over time that makes it much easier.
I know a beekeeper who has a power inverter hooked up to his truck. He uses it to charge the batteries for both his power tools and bee vacuum systems. He can even use it to run regular plug-in AC devices. Lawn crews can just have the backup batteries charging while they drive from job to job.
A landscaping crew would require more batteries and/or a method to charge on the go. Cost might be prohibitive to do that now but in time it might work out. Imagine if you have a large battery in a trailer that charges up all the small batteries between sites or solar on the roof.
Considering most landscaping work is done in the summer months maybe a move to a different Lithium chemistry that is cheaper but doesn’t like cold as much could be beneficial for pro tools.
I was being subtle in addressing this, but it’s spot on - the lawn maintenance working crews in question are all folks out trying to hustle and earn a living, these are not “outfits” with disposable income to invest in the electric future. Quite often the gear is bought/sold in pawn shops all over town, tools are probably the #1 item in any given pawn shop around here (followed by the usual jewelry, guns, etc disposable income items).
Tangent: I lived in CA (SF) for ~18yrs and recognize a lot of the names of the cities and what they’re generally like. “Rich”, “white” (light-skinned any race/culture), “affluent” are the words that came to mind. I dare say that many of these enacted bans are based on “those brown folks making too much noise in my pretty neighborhood.” $0.02
These types of companies may not have tons of disposable income to invest in this but as they need new tools it will probably phase in.
It probably depends on the batteries, battery market, and repair market. We don’t really expect batteries to last a decade. The repairability of these tools is a concern.
Meanwhile, it’s pretty common to repair gas tools. Sometimes from multiple broken ones. Powering the gas tools is similarly simple. None of it requires a company to continue to develop their proprietary product to run.
This is an industry and a market that has been around for decades. I suspect the limited part supply and limited repairability of the electric tools is going to limit their practical lifetime compared to the existing ones on the market.
Great point about repairability. I’ve seen some interesting videos of EV repairs on cars with odd pack issues. Very specialized work right now but assuming skills will develop over time that makes it much easier.
I know a beekeeper who has a power inverter hooked up to his truck. He uses it to charge the batteries for both his power tools and bee vacuum systems. He can even use it to run regular plug-in AC devices. Lawn crews can just have the backup batteries charging while they drive from job to job.
That’s pretty sweet. More car company’s are including provisions for these types of systems built in to accommodate the changing trends too.
This isn’t true anymore. Go check out greenworks commercial line.
Or Ego.