Last fall, the California Legislature passed a law requiring that all new landscaping equipment sold in the state be emissions-free beginning Jan. Yet landscapers are being pressured to change – sometimes by clients and sometimes by governments.

Power, which sells the products, demonstrated the Rival model in a Port Chester, N.Y., park recently. Jen Stroker (left), regional development manager for the company, and Raymond Rocco, co-owner of C.R. Mean Green Mowers, a 10-year-old electric lawn mower company based in Ohio, sells commercial-grade ride-on lawn mowers with long-lasting batteries. That is more than three times a comparable gas-powered machine – though the manufacturer says the customer will break even given significantly lower operation and maintenance costs. A 52-inch-wide ride-on model, the Rival from Mean Green Mowers, starts at nearly $30,000. He has checked out commercial-grade mowers with batteries that can last six or more hours, but hasn't wanted to pay the upfront costs. 'The battery just doesn't last long, especially for the stuff that I do.' 'For homeowners, I feel like it's great,' said Austin Acocella, co-owner of Acocella Landscaping in Scarsdale, N.Y. Electric heavy-duty ride-on mowers make up just 11% of the total market for all heavy-duty ride-on mowers. And in 2021, according to market research company FactMR, electric lawn mowers made up 37% of all sales.īut professional landscapers, who have to run their machines all day, day after day, have yet to join the trend in large numbers. Once restricted to lawns no larger than the length of an extension cord, mowers on the market today run on lithium ion batteries that can last 45 minutes or more without charging and cost about as much as gas-powered versions. And they've done so quietly - about 20 decibels more quietly in some cases. consumer market by storm over the past few years. Electric lawn mowers have taken the U.S. He says electric ride-ons are too expensive for him to switch right now. Austin Acocella, co-owner of Acocella Landscaping in Westchester County, N.Y., is holding onto his gas-powered mowers.

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