Suzanne Campbell

There are 200,000 tractors in Ireland.

170,000 of them would be about the same size and power range as that very snazzy Fent battery tractor that we got a demo of earlier.

Then there are about 30,000 much bigger beasts, the ones that need to put in an 18-hour working day, that need up to and beyond 400 horsepower for the kind of work that they have to do.

Can they ever be electrified?

Could you even get maybe...

a hybrid model?

Well, the answer, if you ask the big traditional brands, that question is no, not for a long time.

The answer, though, if you ask the Chinese is, of course, what colour would you like it in?

Rob McNaughton is importing one brand of Chinese hybrid battery tractor into Ireland now, Zoom Lion.

He joins me this morning.

Good morning, Rob.

Good morning, Philip.

How many different kinds of Zoom Lion tractor are you going to be selling?

Initially, the product offering is 10 units.

That's ranging from 50 horsepower all the way up to 350 horsepower, three of which are hybrid, the 160, the 260 and the 350.

And what kind of a diesel saving do you make by going hybrid?

to zoom line but it's certainly they what they use is is an engine running a generator and what that does is it gives you consistency of power so you don't have we're not relying on electricity all the time it's just connected so you have huge torque from down low in the rev range all the way up to the height

So 20%, 30%, 40% saving on diesel?

30%, yeah.

Yeah, 30%, north of 30% savings on the fuel.