We have a passion for building clean, sustainable technology.

The Founder

With a background in architecture and solar energy, Steve Heckeroth has spent most of his professional career developing renewable energy solutions to conventional energy problems. For over a decade, Steve designed and built passive solar homes in Northern California and later went to work in the solar industry, before deciding to focus his inventive nature on electric transportation. At that time, battery weight was prohibitive to a car’s performance, but after seeing the enormous counterweights used on tractors, Steve soon realized that battery weight on a tractor would be an asset. And in the late 1990s, Steve changed his focus to electric tractors.

Throughout the 2000s, Steve designed and built several electric tractor prototypes, but battery size, capacity, and runtime were limiting factors at the time. Federal and state grant funding played an important role after Steve founded Solectrac as an LLC in 2012. These grants allowed Solectrac to accelerate its tractor prototyping which led to the eUtility Electric Tractor, Solectrac’s first fully functional, 40-horsepower category production model.

Power your tractor from the sun, wind, and other clean renewable sources of energy.

In an effort to reduce the negative impacts of burning fossil fuels, the government has placed pollution-restricting regulations on diesel tractors. But pollutant controls cause excessive downtime for maintenance, and while the new generation diesels emit lower levels of carbon dioxide than gasoline engines, they tend to emit higher levels of NOx which also contributes to climate change. In the absence of a real solution, government attempts and incentives have fallen short of true greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. Until now: Solectrac’s climate-smart 100% battery-powered electric tractors are ready to reduce the pollution from diesel engines in the field, on the farm, and in the cities.

Farmers and tractor operators around the world can become independent from the pollution, infrastructure, and price volatility associated with fossil fuels. Solectrac produces equipment that empowers farmers to feed their local communities to improve local food security and decrease fossil fuel-intensive supply chains.

Electric tractors offer one solution to creating a more sustainable future. Regenerative farming practices are another way to keep our soils healthy and produce nutrient-dense food while further reducing energy-intensive farming. If all tractors sold in 2019 in the 40 HP category were replaced by electric tractors we would only produce .15% of the emissions they currently produce.