Daedong's 55 kW autonomous electric tractor wins a slot in Korea's K-GX green-transition programme, with sales targeted for 2030

Korean farm-machinery maker Daedong said in a press release on Oct 15 that its multi-purpose AI electric tractor project has been selected as a K-GX signature project, in the farm-machinery electrification track of the government's Korea Green Transformation strategy, which the government presented on Oct 7 with plans for KRW 200 trillion of public money and more than KRW 790 trillion of climate finance over ten years.

Daedong will develop a 55 kW (about 74 hp) tractor with a battery pack for four to five hours of work, a single motor paired with a continuously variable transmission, integrated thermal management for battery, motor and inverter, and a vehicle control unit, aimed at autonomous tillage and spraying in orchards; the company has so far worked on a 35 kW battery-swap compact electric tractor.

It plans to mature the core technology by 2027, build production and run field trials in Korea and abroad in 2028-2029, and start sales in 2030, on a line using AMRs, painting robots, fast charging and AI vision inspection.

Co-CEO Won Yu-hyun said the company would expand investment from development through manufacturing. Daedong launched a vision-AI level-4 autonomous tractor in April that it plans to bring to North America next year, and it leads the consortium for the agriculture ministry's KRW 254.6 billion national agricultural AX platform.

MEKAWIRE's database tracks agricultural robotics mainly through U.S. startups such as FarmWise and Advanced Farm Technologies; Daedong's plan is one of the few roadmaps from an incumbent tractor maker that ties electrification and autonomy to a dated timeline.