The former automotive executive was recruited by CNH Industrial, the conglomerate behind many well-known agriculture and heavy machinery brands, in August. When he arrived, his work was already cut out for him.
But with an increasingly tight labor market — and the necessity to wean a carbon-dependent industry off of fossil fuels — the agriculture of the future won't look like past centuries. "We are in a heavy duty environment," Mülhäuser said. "Our thinking is that, will there be electrification with batteries? Yes. For applications where you don't need a high degree of autonomy, in urban environments where you only have to go a couple hundred miles a day, and where you don't have to carry 30 or 40 tons.