Taiwan International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition Marks 20th Anniversary with Electric Autonomous Tractors

Central News Agency (Chiayi) The 20th Agricultural Machinery and Materials Exhibition will open on the 30th in Chiayi County, featuring 250 exhibitors and 700 booths showcasing large-scale and smart agricultural machinery. A major highlight is the electric autonomous tractor, which features Tesla batteries and NVIDIA autonomous driving chips. The tractor is manufactured in California by a US subsidiary of Foxconn, with a battery life of 14 hours and a price tag of approximately NT$4 million. Hong Hong-yi, a division chief at the Agriculture and Food Agency, stated that in line with national net-zero policies, the government is encouraging farmers to replace old fuel-powered machinery with low-carbon alternatives, increasing the subsidy for electric farm machinery from one-third to one-half of the purchase price. Since 2019, the government has invested over NT$7.6 billion to subsidize the purchase of nearly 250,000 units of agricultural machinery. Chiayi County Magistrate Weng Chang-liang welcomed farmers to attend the exhibition to explore labor-saving equipment and improve efficiency.