Originally posted at startribune.com
by: Susan Feyder, Star Tribune
After four years in development, Toro came up with an electric mower, gentle enough for golf courses' defining greens.
It's been 90 years since the Toro Co. pioneered motorized grass cutting for golf courses by simply hitching five mowers to a tractor. It was a crude stab at innovation that eliminated an even cruder problem -- cleaning up after the horses that until then had pulled mowers over fairways.
Since then, gasoline -- not hay -- has been the primary power source for golf course maintenance. Now the Bloomington-based company has taken a step to change that, with a new lithium ion-powered, all-electric mower that's a first in the turf care industry. The mower is specifically targeted for greens, whose tender grass is demanding enough to dictate precise care.
It's the latest of several eco-friendly products Toro has launched in recent years, including hybrid mowers and water-saving sprinklers and irrigation systems. Many are aimed at the golf course market, which last year accounted for more than one quarter of Toro's $1.69 billion in sales, but others are geared for landscape contractors, farmers and homeowners.
Toro began exploring battery-powered mowers several years ago because it knew the golf industry was interested in machines that would not consume gas or emit carbon dioxide, said Helmut Ullrich, senior marketing manager for greens mowers. Another benefit is that they are quieter, so they can be operated for more hours during the day without disturbing neighbors, he said.
The company initially considered developing a mower powered by lead acid batteries. Jacobsen, a Charlotte, N.C.-based unit of Textron Inc., already has a lead acid battery model on the market.
"We couldn't come up with a mower with a lead acid battery that met customers' expectations," Ullrich said. The main problem was that the battery would only last for mowing two or three greens and then had to be recharged, a process that takes about eight hours. Golf course superintendents had told Toro they wanted a machine whose power would last for at least six greens.
by: Susan Feyder, Star Tribune
After four years in development, Toro came up with an electric mower, gentle enough for golf courses' defining greens.
It's been 90 years since the Toro Co. pioneered motorized grass cutting for golf courses by simply hitching five mowers to a tractor. It was a crude stab at innovation that eliminated an even cruder problem -- cleaning up after the horses that until then had pulled mowers over fairways.
Since then, gasoline -- not hay -- has been the primary power source for golf course maintenance. Now the Bloomington-based company has taken a step to change that, with a new lithium ion-powered, all-electric mower that's a first in the turf care industry. The mower is specifically targeted for greens, whose tender grass is demanding enough to dictate precise care.
It's the latest of several eco-friendly products Toro has launched in recent years, including hybrid mowers and water-saving sprinklers and irrigation systems. Many are aimed at the golf course market, which last year accounted for more than one quarter of Toro's $1.69 billion in sales, but others are geared for landscape contractors, farmers and homeowners.
Toro began exploring battery-powered mowers several years ago because it knew the golf industry was interested in machines that would not consume gas or emit carbon dioxide, said Helmut Ullrich, senior marketing manager for greens mowers. Another benefit is that they are quieter, so they can be operated for more hours during the day without disturbing neighbors, he said.
The company initially considered developing a mower powered by lead acid batteries. Jacobsen, a Charlotte, N.C.-based unit of Textron Inc., already has a lead acid battery model on the market.
"We couldn't come up with a mower with a lead acid battery that met customers' expectations," Ullrich said. The main problem was that the battery would only last for mowing two or three greens and then had to be recharged, a process that takes about eight hours. Golf course superintendents had told Toro they wanted a machine whose power would last for at least six greens.
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