Electrification is coming to vehicles of all shapes and sizes, from buses to ferries to aircraft. The humble lawn mower is no exception – for a couple of years, your correspondent has been happily tending his humble brown patch with a battery-electric mower, and will never go back to gas. My Worx mower cost only a little more than a gas belcher, it starts instantly and effortlessly every time, and there are no trips to the gas station and no range anxiety.

The machines made by Ohio-based Mean Green Products, however, are in quite another class – the company calls itself “the Tesla of lawn mowers” (my little plastic device is more like a Mitsubishi iMiEV). These are heavy-duty commercial mowers, designed for the professional landscape crew.

The MGP-20 push mower goes for $2,499 including charger (Mean Green compares it to commercial gas mowers that sell in the $800-$1,600 range). It has a 6.5 hp motor, runs at 36 volts, features an aluminum deck and steel frame and weighs in at 78 lbs including the battery (a comparable gas burner is 100-120 lbs). According to Mean Green, the battery lasts for over 2 hours of mowing, and recharges in 4 hours (2 hours with the optional fast charger).

And they get bigger from there. The WBX-33HD ($9,000) is a self-propelled 33” walk-behind mower with 18 hp that can mow “all day” on a charge. Riding models include the SK-48 Stalker and the Nemesis NXR, which claims to be the most powerful electric prosumer zero-turn mower on the market – and, by the way, “the downfall of the gas mower.”

Mean Green says its products’ operating and maintenance costs run about 5% of the costs for legacy gas-chugging products, and that pros can save between $5.50 and $8.00 per hour of mowing time. The only routine maintenance is greasing two fittings on the front wheels every 50-100 hours.

Mean Green also makes hand-held electric tools such as blowers, string trimmers and chain saws. Its products are sold through dealers in several US states and in the UK.

Source: Mean Green