Connectivity is a $14 billion industry leader that provides a broad portfolio of rugged sensors, terminals, connectors and relays for agricultural equipment (and other vehicles). Those solutions are particularly engineered to withstand the harsh conditions in the agricultural industry, providing the durability and reliability that operators require.   

As the industry begins to transition from internal combustion engines (ICEs) to electric mobility, TE Connectivity is playing a significant role in this transformation as well. The company is leveraging its work with virtually every OEM in the automotive and commercial transportation industries to help them engineer their new EV cars and commercial trucks and is extending that knowledge and helping agricultural equipment manufacturers in this area as well.  

Below is a Q&A with Sebastien Dupre, TE Connectivity’s product management lead for Hybrid and Electric Mobility (high voltage solutions). 

What role does TE play in the progression of electric powered farm equipment?

At TE, we are committed to an electrified future. As the world shifts swiftly away from internal combustion engines and into hybrid and electric mobility, the Industrial and Commercial Transportation (ICT) is key to meeting worldwide goals of electrified transport, lowered emissions, and a cleaner planet. We are closely cooperating with both OEMs and systems makers to keep the pace of the market, understand the needs unique to each industry and provide adequate solutions to each of these applications. It does come down to a clear understanding of the various application cases – bus, truck – medium and heavy duty, construct, agriculture - and understanding the difference in requirements.  As discussed earlier, platform approach is best to drive design reuse and scale which results in higher reliability and lower cost.  It is a matter of matching the application performance requirements to the solution for optimal cost.  Example is die cast/metal housings, which offer the ruggedized performance vs. plastic housings. We are also part of committees defining the standards setting the future of the industry to insure customers concerns / pain points are properly addressed.

Does TE supply farm machinery OEMs, or dealers and distributors as well?

TE is engaged with many farm machinery OEMs, understanding the unique requirements of the industry , and supporting customers with components, but also bringing complete system expertise to ease integration of new technologies in the farming industry. As TE knows the uniqueness of distribution channels within this industry, we are also working with the full extent of TE go to market channels to insure we can serve all customers.

What products does TE supply?

With our decades of experience in innovation, we're taking multiple steps into the electrification revolution by offering a range of products squarely aimed at helping your designs meet the challenges of tomorrow such as high voltage terminals and connectors (photo attached HVA280), charging inlets and power distribution units.

Can you provide a little more information/your thoughts on this statement: In fact, experts predict that by 2040, most forms of transportation will leverage electric motors and/or cleaner sources of fuel to meet heightened standards.

I fully agree with this statement. We see this transformation happening and strengthening every day. The question is not if it is happening but rather at what speed. We see all markets moving to some variant of electric vehicle, each application has a different mix of challenges and benefits versus the emission reductions, but on the whole the more known and limited the applications the quickest, easiest and fastest we are seeing the transition.