15 E-Mobility Engineering | January/February 2026 Kent Wanner | In conversation enough to drive development of the custom parts that were required. The company worked with major industry players to help shape suitable component solutions to meet the needs of the ruggedised vehicle market. Meanwhile, Wanner and his team began an approach that continues to this day – the identification and development of specific vehicles with propulsion and/or work functions that merit electrification in combination, to truly add value. “That’s one of the things that is really unique about our space,” explains Wanner. “When you talk about cars, trucks or other on-highway vehicles, it’s really mainly about traction, the propulsion system and how good you can make it. In our space, we’ve got to think about a whole bunch of different systems. The many work functions on these vehicles are just as important – and can demand just as much power – as propulsion. “That’s where we look at how we can provide added value with electrification – so it’s not just the propulsion, it’s the precision, controllability and efficiency that electrification can offer to the different work functions. The fundamental focus is not about following trends or government subsidies, it’s about how to actually provide value for our customers using electrification as an enabling technology.” After six years of research and development, John Deere unveiled its first application of high-power electric performance in the 644K Hybrid Wheel Loader, which was released in 2013. Its big brother, the 944K, was introduced in 2015 – which, incidentally, was the subject of a detailed review in the third edition of this very magazine. The secret to the success on the loader was not specifically its electric drive, but rather the way that it fitted electrification into the work cycle as a whole. “It was absolutely ground-breaking in the industry,” recalls Wanner. “It was real Wild West stuff. We were developing things that simply didn’t exist, rapidly learning and then moving on to the next version – and the reason we picked a loader as opposed to a crawler, a tractor or some other vehicle was because it’s constantly changing direction, stopping, starting and moving in a V pattern for truck loading, so it has a lot of regenerative work opportunities. “The hydraulics used for steering and operating the boom and bucket use as much power as the traction system, so we developed an architecture that interconnected the electric drive, hydraulics and diesel engine. Using fast, well-integrated controls, we could seamlessly push power to where it was needed – so we were spinning the hydraulic pump for free, lifting the load using the recovered kinetic energy of the vehicle without even the need for a battery.” At the time, larger 944K-size loaders did not exist in John Deere’s portfolio and the company was not known at all in that market. However, by designing from the ground up around the electric drive, they arrived with a solution that burned significantly less fuel than any competitor, saved on tyre wear thanks to the four-wheel independent traction control, and was easy for a novice operator to get expert operator so I started to do some courses, went to IEEE conferences to pick things up, talked to suppliers and just did a lot of learning internally. We had to create our own lab, figure out what equipment we needed and grow our team. “We added people who knew things about motor controls or lab safety, and then I brought in my experience of designing vehicles and getting products into production. We did a lot of rapid learning, collaborating with partners to develop and build applications and features that suited exactly what they wanted – and we then used that new knowledge to design new products that were applicable to John Deere’s own equipment.” Rugged revolution Although electrification was gathering pace in the roadcar market, Wanner and his team had a far greater challenge delivering it in the agricultural and construction spaces. Most EV components were unsuitable because their vehicles faced much harsher vibration and shock conditions and had to last an order of magnitude longer, while at the same time, the manufacturing volumes were not big The 944X-Tier Wheel Loader – originally launched as the 944K – was part of John Deere’s first venture into vehicle electrification
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