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When you're choosing commercial mowing equipment, it's easy to focus on the purchase price. After all, it's the most obvious number sitting in front of you. But for councils, contractors, schools, parks teams, sports facilities and professional grounds crews, the cost of buying a mower is only part of the picture.

A commercial mower can operate for hundreds of hours every year, and over its working life, fuel, electricity, servicing, maintenance and operator time can have a much bigger impact on what that machine actually costs your operation.

That's where the comparison between professional battery and petrol equipment gets interesting.

Using the PELLENC Rasion 2 Easy and a conventional commercial self-propelled petrol mower as an example, we've looked beyond the initial purchase price to see how the numbers compare over the longer term.

Battery vs petrol at a glance

Based on a commercial-use scenario of approximately five operating hours per day across 170 working days per year:

A few figures immediately stand out: around $71 per year in estimated battery charging costs compared with more than $3,000 in petrol, a cutting deck that's approximately 13% wider, and around 33 minutes of potential mowing time saved per hectare under the modelled conditions.

Across the modelled battery-life period, the numbers indicate a potential saving of approximately $19,343, even after allowing for the higher initial purchase price of the battery mower.

Of course, these aren't figures that will apply exactly to every operation. How often you mow, the conditions you work in and your energy and fuel costs will all influence the result. But they do show why purchase price alone doesn't tell the whole story.

The upfront cost is only the beginning

There's no getting around it: petrol wins on initial purchase price.

The PELLENC Rasion 2 Easy, including a 1200 battery and charger, has an indicative purchase price of $7,020.75 including GST, compared with $2,499 including GST for the petrol mower used in this comparison. That's a difference of more than $4,500 upfront, which can understandably make petrol look like the more economical option.

But commercial operators don't just buy equipment. They have to fuel it, maintain it and pay someone to operate it, often for hundreds of hours every year. Once those costs are included, the comparison starts to look quite different.

Petrol is a cost that keeps coming back

Our model assumes approximately five hours of mowing per operating day. At an estimated fuel consumption of 1.15 litres per hour, the petrol mower would use around 5.75 litres during a five-hour day.

At an assumed petrol price of $3.07 per litre, that's approximately $17.65 every operating day, or $3,000.93 across 170 operating days.

And that's before servicing and other petrol-engine maintenance requirements are considered.

For one mower, that's already a meaningful annual expense. For a council, contractor or grounds team running several machines, those costs can add up very quickly.

Battery changes that equation

Battery equipment shifts more of the investment to the beginning. You pay more for the equipment upfront, but the ongoing energy cost can be considerably lower.

Based on the assumptions in our comparison, a full charge of the PELLENC battery costs approximately $0.42. Across 170 operating days, that's an estimated annual charging cost of just $71.40.

Compare that with approximately $3,000.93 in petrol and you're looking at an estimated annual energy-cost difference of $2,929.53.

That's when the higher purchase price of professional battery equipment starts to make more sense. Instead of asking only, “What does this mower cost to buy?”, the better question becomes, “What will it cost every time we use it?”

Then there's servicing

Fuel isn't the only recurring cost with a petrol mower.

Our comparison assumes an oil change approximately every 50 operating hours. At five hours per day across 170 working days, the mower would clock up roughly 850 hours a year, which works out to around 17 scheduled oil changes under the assumptions used in the model.

Depending on the mower and its maintenance schedule, there can also be filters, spark plugs and other engine-related maintenance to consider, along with the labour and downtime involved in carrying out that work.

Battery-powered equipment removes many of those routine combustion-engine maintenance requirements. That can mean lower direct maintenance costs, but it can also mean less productive time lost to servicing.

What happens over several years?

This is where total cost of ownership becomes much more useful than simply comparing price tags.

Our model assumes an indicative battery cycle life of approximately 1,300 cycles. At 170 charging cycles per year, that's around 7.6 years of theoretical use under the conditions we've modelled.

Over that period, estimated electricity expenditure for charging is approximately $546. Petrol, on the other hand, remains an ongoing cost every time the mower goes out.

When the modelled fuel and basic oil costs are considered across the same period, and the difference in original purchase price is taken into account, the calculation indicates a potential saving of approximately $19,343.

That doesn't mean every operator is automatically going to save $19,343. Someone mowing two days a week will have a very different calculation from a contractor running equipment five days a week. Fuel prices change, electricity rates vary and battery life will depend on use, charging behaviour and operating conditions.

The important takeaway is that the higher purchase price of battery equipment shouldn't be looked at in isolation.

There's also the value of time

Running costs are only one part of the equation. For commercial mowing operations, operator time matters too.

The PELLENC Rasion 2 Easy has an approximately 600 mm cutting width, compared with around 530 mm for the petrol mower in our comparison. That's roughly a 13% increase in cutting width.

Assuming both machines travel at approximately 5 km/h and achieve 80% working efficiency, the model estimates an effective mowing capacity of approximately 0.240 hectares per hour for the Rasion 2 Easy, compared with 0.212 hectares per hour for the petrol mower.

To mow one hectare, that's approximately 4 hours 10 minutes with the Rasion 2 Easy, compared with around 4 hours 43 minutes with the petrol mower - a theoretical difference of about 33 minutes per hectare.

On one hectare, that might not seem particularly significant. But mowing is repetitive. If you're maintaining tens or hundreds of hectares across parks, schools, sports fields, public spaces or commercial properties throughout the year, those minutes can turn into a considerable number of operator hours.

That time has a value. It could allow a contractor to service more sites, help a council team cover more ground during the working week or reduce the labour required to maintain an existing area.

Of course, a wider mower isn't automatically faster in every situation. Terrain, obstacles, grass height, moisture, turning requirements, site layout and operator technique all affect real-world productivity. But under comparable conditions, being able to cover more ground with each pass is a clear advantage.

Some benefits don't fit neatly into a spreadsheet

Cost and productivity are important, but they're not the only considerations.

Moving away from a petrol engine can also mean less noise, reduced vibration, no exhaust emissions at the point of operation and no need to transport, store and handle petrol for everyday mowing.

Those differences can be particularly valuable when you're working around people — whether that's at schools, hospitals, retirement facilities, accommodation properties, parks, public spaces or residential areas.

Lower noise may also provide more flexibility around when mowing can be carried out, while removing petrol exhaust at the point of use can make the working environment more comfortable for both operators and the people nearby.

For organisations working towards emissions-reduction targets, transitioning suitable equipment from petrol to battery can also form part of a broader sustainability strategy.

So, is battery actually cheaper than petrol?

It depends on how you use it.

If a mower only comes out occasionally, the lower purchase price of petrol may still make sense. But the more hours the machine operates, the more important its ongoing running costs become.

That's why, when comparing commercial mowing equipment, it's worth asking four things:

• How many hours will we actually use the mower each year?
• What will it cost us in fuel, electricity and servicing?
• How much ground can we realistically cover per operator hour?
• What will this machine cost us over its useful working life?

The answers can tell a very different story from the purchase price alone.

Look beyond the price tag

Professional battery equipment represents a different investment model. The upfront cost is higher, but over time that can be offset by substantially lower energy costs, fewer combustion-engine maintenance requirements and potential improvements in productivity.

Under the commercial-use assumptions in our comparison, estimated annual energy costs drop from approximately $3,001 for petrol to around $71 for battery. Across the modelled battery-life period, the potential financial difference reaches approximately $19,343, even after accounting for the higher initial purchase price.

And that figure doesn't put a dollar value on the potential operator hours saved through increased mowing capacity.

For commercial operators, the most useful question may not be “Which mower is cheaper to buy?”

It may be “Which mower will cost us less to own and operate?”

Once you start looking at the numbers that way, the comparison between petrol and professional battery equipment becomes much more useful.

Could battery mowing work for your operation?

No two mowing operations are exactly the same. The hours you mow, the area you maintain, your current fuel costs, terrain and existing equipment fleet will all influence whether transitioning to battery makes commercial sense.

The Hydralada team can help you explore the PELLENC professional battery range and work out which equipment is best suited to the way you operate.

Talk to Hydralada about PELLENC professional battery equipment and start comparing the cost beyond the purchase price.

The calculations presented in this article are indicative and based on the assumptions used in Hydralada's mower comparison model, including approximately five operating hours per day and 170 operating days per year. Pricing shown includes GST and is indicative only. Actual battery life, battery cycles, fuel consumption, electricity costs, fuel prices, servicing requirements, mowing productivity and equipment life will vary according to operating conditions and use. Productivity calculations are theoretical and do not account for all site-specific factors. Depreciation, servicing labour, filters, spark plugs and certain other ownership costs have not been included. The comparison should not be interpreted as a guarantee of future costs or savings.