TADUS is moving its T16.20 battery-electric tractor closer to commercial production, with the German company preparing a five-unit pre-series for initial customers during the second half of 2026. First presented in near-production form at Agritechnica 2025, the T16.20 develops 120 kW/160 hp maximum power from a purpose-built multi-motor electric architecture and carries a 196 kWh lithium-ion battery. TADUS estimates approximately five to eight hours of operation, while a battery-exchange system designed to complete a swap in around five minutes is intended to make continuous operation possible where a second battery is available.
The more distinctive element, however, is the role TADUS envisages for that battery when the tractor is not working. The T16.20 is designed for bidirectional AC and DC energy transfer, at up to 22 kW and 120 kW respectively, allowing its battery to become part of the farm’s wider energy system. Electricity generated by photovoltaic installations could therefore be stored in the tractor or an exchange battery and subsequently used for farm loads such as milking or ventilation systems. Combined with a future energy-management platform coordinating generation, storage and consumption, this effectively gives the tractor a second function as a mobile energy-storage asset.
Strategically, this could be more important than electrification alone. Battery-electric tractors continue to face the fundamental challenge of combining sufficient operating time with acceptable weight, charging infrastructure and utilisation economics. TADUS is attempting to change that equation by making the battery economically productive beyond tractor operating hours. For farms already generating significant amounts of solar electricity, the investment case could therefore increasingly depend on energy arbitrage, self-consumption and storage utilisation alongside diesel substitution. The planned 2026 pre-series will be an important test of whether this integrated machine + energy asset proposition can translate from engineering concept into practical farm economics.
Bottom Line
The most interesting part of the T16.20 is no longer simply that it is a 160 hp electric tractor. It is TADUS’s attempt to make a large tractor battery productive even when the tractor itself is stationary.
That potentially changes the economics of agricultural electrification. A conventional tractor is essentially an idle capital asset when parked; a bidirectional electric tractor could theoretically remain part of the farm’s energy infrastructure, storing photovoltaic electricity, supporting farm consumption and potentially increasing the utilisation value of an expensive battery.
