changeadminIndia’s Minister for Consumer Affairs, Pralhad Joshi, released IS 19262: 2025 ‘Electric Agricultural Tractors — Test Code’, on the occasion of National Consumer Day 2025, held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.
The Indian Standard, developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), ensures the safety, reliability, and performance of electric agricultural tractors through uniform, standardised testing protocols.
IS 19262:2025 ‘Electric Agricultural Tractors — Test Code’ establishes a common understanding among all stakeholders regarding uniform terminology, general guidelines, and tests to be carried out on electric agricultural tractors, including testing Power Take-Off power, drawbar power, and belt and pulley performance.
It also covers vibration measurement, specification verification, and inspection of various components and assemblies of electric agricultural tractors.
The standard draws on IS 5994: 2022 ‘Agricultural tractors — Test code’, and relevant Automotive Industry Standards developed for electric vehicles, suitably adapted for agricultural applications.
The implementation of IS 19262:2025 through authorised testing institutes would facilitate the broader adoption of electric agricultural tractors in the country, promote innovation in clean agrarian technologies, and contribute to reduced emissions and sustainable agricultural mechanisation.
Test data generated in accordance with the procedures prescribed in IS 19262:2025 are expected to provide a scientific basis for evaluating the performance and safety characteristics of electric agricultural tractors.
Such data would also assist in the future development of acceptance criteria and conformity assessment schemes specific to electric tractors.
By prescribing structured, uniform testing procedures, the standard aims to help manufacturers deliver reliable, safe products and to give farmers and consumers greater confidence in the performance and capabilities of electric agricultural tractors.
Electric agricultural tractors represent an emerging and essential segment in India’s farm mechanisation ecosystem. These tractors use electric motor(s) powered by battery packs, instead of conventional diesel engines, for propulsion and other agricultural operations.
With rapid advances in battery technology, electric motors, and power electronics, electric tractors have evolved significantly in recent years, enabling more efficient, capable machines.
These tractors offer a sustainable alternative to traditional diesel-powered tractors, with benefits including reduced emissions, lower operating costs, and improved operational performance.
An electric tractor eliminates tailpipe emissions at the farm level, helping reduce air pollution and the carbon footprint of agricultural operations.
For farmers working long hours in fields, this also provides a healthier working environment with significantly lower noise and no exposure to exhaust fumes.
Additionally, with fewer moving parts than diesel engines, these tractors require less maintenance, have lower operating costs, and deliver improved energy efficiency.
Electric agricultural tractors help reduce diesel consumption in the farm sector. By lowering the use of this fossil fuel, they also reduce the use of natural resources required for diesel production.
As the adoption of electric agricultural tractors grows in the country, the absence of dedicated, harmonised testing procedures makes it difficult to assess their performance, safety, and reliability consistently.
In response to this requirement and the request of the Mechanisation & Technology Division, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India (GoI), to develop electric tractor standards on priority, the Bureau of Indian Standards took up the formulation of an Indian Standard to establish standardised testing protocols for electric agricultural tractors.
The formulation of this standard involved active participation from key stakeholders, including electric tractor manufacturers, testing and certification agencies, research and academic institutions, and technical experts in agricultural engineering and electric mobility.
Representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India, ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Budni, Tractor and Mechanisation Association, New Delhi, Automotive Research Association of India, Pune, All India Farmers Alliance, New Delhi, etc, contributed significantly during the standard development process.
The voluntary notification of this standard marks an essential step towards strengthening India’s standardisation framework for emerging technologies in the agriculture sector and aligning domestic practices with evolving international trends in electric mobility and farm mechanisation.
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