Electric Tractor Testing in India: IS 19262:2025 and the FMTTI Route

Electric tractors have moved from demonstration plots to dealer showrooms faster than the rules around them. For most of that period, a manufacturer who wanted an electric tractor tested in India faced a practical problem: the test code was written for diesel tractors.

That changed with IS 19262:2025, Electric Agricultural Tractors — Test Code, released by the Bureau of Indian Standards on National Consumer Day 2025. This guide is where we start every electric tractor conversation with clients: what the code is, who tests against it, and what to have ready.

What is IS 19262:2025?

IS 19262:2025 is the first Indian Standard written specifically for testing electric agricultural tractors. According to the PIB release of 28 December 2025, it establishes "uniform terminology, general guidelines, and tests to be carried out on electric agricultural tractors".^[1]

Three facts about it matter most for a manufacturer:

• It is a test code, not a product specification. It tells an institute how to measure an electric tractor. It does not tell you how to design one.
• It is voluntary. The release describes its notification as voluntary.^[1] Whether you need a test report depends on where you plan to sell, which we cover below.
• It borrows from two families of standards. It draws on IS 5994:2022, Agricultural tractors — Test code, and on the Automotive Industry Standards developed for electric vehicles, adapted for farm use.^[1]

The standard was taken up at the request of the Mechanization & Technology Division of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. Contributors included the Ministry, ICAR-CIAE Bhopal, CFMTTI Budni, the Tractor and Mechanization Association, ARAI Pune and the All India Farmers Alliance.^[1] In other words, the institute that tests tractors helped write the code it now has to work with.

What gets measured on an electric tractor?

The BIS release lists the scope as:^[1]

Test area	What it tells a buyer or a scheme
PTO power	How much power the tractor delivers to PTO-driven implements such as rotavators and threshers
Drawbar power	How much pulling power it has for ploughs, cultivators and trailers
Belt and pulley performance	Output for belt-driven stationary work
Vibration measurement	What the operator is exposed to over a working day
Verification of specifications	Whether the machine matches what the manufacturer has declared
Inspection of components and assemblies	Build quality, and whether the components are what they are stated to be

The list is deliberately close to the diesel tractor code. That is the point: an electric tractor's PTO and drawbar figures can sit next to a diesel tractor's in a test report. We explain the differences line by line in IS 19262:2025 explained.

Who tests electric tractors in India?

Tractor testing in India runs through the Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute (CFMTTI), Budni in Madhya Pradesh. Our CFMTTI Budni explainer covers its national mandate for tractor type-approval.

CFMTTI Budni is also where electric tractor testing in India began. In April 2021 the Ministry announced that the institute had tested the first-ever electric tractor at the institute. The application came in as a Confidential Test, the draft report was released in February 2021, and the final report was issued as a Commercial Test Report after the manufacturer asked to convert it.^[2] We tell that story, and what it means for applicants now, in India's first electric tractor test at CFMTTI Budni.

How long does tractor testing take?

The Ministry cut the time limit for testing agricultural tractors from nine months to 75 working days, under revised guidelines issued to CFMTTI Budni that took effect on 15 August 2022.^[3] That time limit is for tractor testing in general. The release does not single out electric models, so plan around 75 working days and confirm the current timeline for your model with the institute.

Two other figures from the general tractor rules carry over unless the institute tells you otherwise:

• Sample size: tractors and power tillers are drawn at 5 units under the FMTTI sampling rules.
• Report validity: a tractor's Initial Commercial Test report carries 3 years, and each subsequent Batch Test 5 years. The validity guide covers the whole table.

Do I need an electric tractor test report?

The code being voluntary does not make the report optional for every route to market. The SMAM guidelines set two rules that apply to any tractor, electric or diesel:^[4]

1. Testing at an FMTTI or a designated DAC&FW testing centre is mandatory for machinery costing more than ₹35,000 before it is supplied under Government assisted programmes.
2. Only equipment tested by an FMTTI or a designated DAC&FW institute is eligible for subsidy in all states under those programmes.

An electric tractor costs far more than ₹35,000. If your buyers are farmers using a subsidy, custom hiring centres, FPOs or government tenders, plan for a test report from day one. The detail is in Electric tractor subsidy: the test report comes first.

A test report also does a job that marketing cannot. It puts independently measured PTO and drawbar figures alongside your claims. For a new technology that farmers are still learning to trust, that matters.

How to prepare an electric tractor for testing

What we ask every electric tractor client to have ready before applying on the Agri-Machinery Portal:

1. Read IS 19262:2025 and IS 5994:2022 together. The electric code builds on the diesel one, so you need both.
2. Declare specifications you can stand behind. Specification verification is in the scope, and a declared figure the machine does not reach is the most avoidable problem in any test.
3. Prepare the standard document set. The SMAM guidelines expect every application to come with the technical specifications, operator manual and workshop manual.^[4] Add a parts catalogue and photographs, which the portal also asks for.
4. Choose Commercial or Confidential deliberately. A Confidential Test is priced 10% higher and suits a pre-launch prototype. See Commercial vs Confidential.
5. Confirm the fee with CFMTTI Budni. Tractors are not a line in the general per-category fee schedule, so ask the institute for the charge that applies to your model.
6. Commit five units. Plan production so that five tractors can go to the test without holding up early deliveries.

Electric vs diesel: what changes?

The headline tests are shared. The differences are in what powers them: a battery and motor instead of a diesel engine, and Automotive Industry Standards for electric vehicles instead of engine emission cycles. We go through the differences in Electric vs diesel tractor testing.

Where we come in

Working out which code applies, which documents CFMTTI Budni expects, and what to declare before an electric tractor is crated is the groundwork test process guidance covers. AgPro does not run the tests; CFMTTI Budni's engineers do that, at the institute. Our job is to get your tractor to the institute ready, with the right paperwork and realistic expectations.

For the category basics, see our tractor testing page.