Getting Barefoot

Getting Barefoot

Getting Barefoot. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. I am completely intrigued by the prospect of electric transportation. Recently I discovered that this kind of technology has been applied to the 4-wheel ATV vehicle industry and farmers and orchardists are really excited. Robert Acheson is the President of Barefoot Motors. ACHESON: Right now we're targeting just that market – various flavors of utility vehicles as say opposed to real specialty vehicles for us in orchard work and the like. We intend to have a little bit broader market and that's a market we are familiar with but we do see a lot of demand for both ATV's as well as a vehicle called a side-by-side that's made to carry two people, drive with a steering wheel instead of handlebars and carry a load in the back. Up until recently the public was seeing products like this as novelty items, fun for maybe the kids but not as an everyday workhorse vehicle. Acheson says they are seeing a shift. ACHESON: When we first started out company frankly you had to evangelize the product a fair amount. You had to educate first of all that no, this wasn't merely a golf cart and yes it would go faster than 5 miles an hour and yes it was powerful. And the way we found we had to sell them to start was just put people and they would go, wow, this is way different than what I'd anticipated. A lot of hard work has gone into the design of these ATV's and a good deal of thought about the components including the power center of the vehicle. ACHESON: We use the best batteries that are commercially available, much lighter and more duration and much longer life expressed in terms of life of the vehicle than a typical lead-acid battery. A typical lead-acid battery will get between 500 and 1000 full cycles. Our batteries are warranted for 1000 and we've seen 4000 cycles in testing so it's a much longer life battery and because its lighter that mean you get to carry a heavier payload, too. Acheson says that there is some education that needs to take place with the public. ACHESON: At current gas rates, and current electric rates electric vehicles are substantially less expensive to operate than a gas vehicle. But I think a lot of people think that well you're just paying for that energy production at a hydroelectric dam or nuclear plant or a wind turbine or whatever – rather than having a single individual motor power one vehicle you are basically having the large efficiency of a major infrastructure create electricity. You can see the M1 electric ATV at barefootmotors.com and for additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org www.barefootmotors.com
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