The new Tracker OX EV electric UTV has just been unveiled, showing off its long range design that’s optimized for work around a ranch, farm or other off-road work site.
It may look like a souped-up golf cart, but the Tracker OX EV appears to be designed for real utility.
The company touts its heavy hauling specs, such as the 1,200 lb (544 kg) towing capacity and 500 lb (226 kg) cargo bed capacity.
The Tracker OX EV even has a 900 lb (408 kg) total payload capacity, meaning that the cargo bed can be maxed out with enough power left to still carry two adult passengers.
The bed has a dump function and includes a hydraulic lifter so you won’t have to dump a quarter-ton of mulch or sand by hand.
The electric motor is rated at 11.1 kW (14.9 hp), and is powered by a 48V battery that uses Samsung’s 4860-format lithium-ion battery cells. There’s also a 900W on-board charger to make recharges simple and easy from a typical wall outlet.
The company hasn’t revealed the exact battery capacity yet, but the claimed 6-hour recharge time and 900W charger would seem to ballpark the battery in the 5 kWh range.
The Tracker OX EV is said to achieve a maximum range of 60 miles (96 km). Whether that’s at its top speed of 16.5 mph (26.5 km/h) is yet another mystery.
The new electric side-by-side features an automatically engaging electric parking brake, which complements the existing mechanical drum brakes.
Suspension consists of leaf springs matched with hydraulic dampers.
Priced at US $12,999, the Tracker OX EV will be available at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s and other dealers, and will be available in both the US and Canada.
As a UTV, the vehicle is not street legal and thus is intended purely for off-road use. It will compete with a growing number of electric utility vehicles, such as John Deere’s electric gator. Though with a covered cab, larger hauling/towing capacity and lithium-ion batteries instead of lead acid batteries, Tracker seems to have a leg up on John Deere.
Other UTVs like the Polaris RANGER XP Kinetic offer significantly more power and battery capacity than the Tracker OX EV, but at around twice the price.
Companies like Texas-based Volcon are also getting into the electric UTV game, helping to expand the options for electric utility vehicles and side-by-sides that could hit the market in the coming year.
Electrek’s Take
The proliferation of lower cost electric utility vehicles is a great news.
This one can’t hold a handle to the likes of Polaris and other high power alternatives, but $13k is pretty darn reasonable for light-to-medium duty electric side-by-side. Sure, it’s more expensive than the combustion versions, but every year we creep closer to price parity.
For those that want to make the golf cart argument, consider this. A halfway-decent golf cart costs $10k these days (believe it or not), and so to have a more rugged version with dumping bed that can actually tow and haul could be quite useful. Golf carts are amazing people movers, but this seems to do more work than a golf cart could.
I use an electric mini-truck that I keep on my parent’s ranch and it is perfect for exactly these types of jobs. It’s a form of transportation for getting around the grounds, it’s useful for hauling gear and moving dirt/concrete/bricks/branches/whatever in the bed, and it has a dump feature that turns it into a dump truck.
The electric drive means we don’t have to keep gas or diesel on hand, and it’s easy enough to charge on a typical 110V outlet. I even added a solar panel to the top to trickle charge it from the sun.
So you can say I’m pretty on-board when it comes to light duty electric UTVs, and I can’t wait to see even more options like this new Tracker OX EV model.