Economic Assessment Comparison Between Battery- and Petrol-Powered Chainsaws: Performance in Conifer Forest Operations

Electrification of professional forestry operations has been extensively studied in motor-manual operations involving chainsaws. Recent studies have highlighted that the main limitation to the widespread adoption of battery-powered chainsaws in professional forestry work is their limited autonomy. In the present study, this issue was addressed from an economic perspective, with the objective of determining how many years are required to offset the high initial investment in batteries through the lower operating costs associated with electricity compared to petrol. To carry out this study, different battery-powered chainsaws were compared with equivalent petrol-powered chainsaws under identical workloads across different forest types. To assess these comparisons, electricity consumption (Wh) and petrol consumption were measured to determine machine autonomy. The results showed a clear advantage of electricity in terms of energy cost per tree cut, meaning that the high initial investment in batteries (approximately €4000–6000 and 8–10 batteries per working day) can be recovered within 3–4 years. Battery-powered chainsaws proved economically competitive, recovering the initial investment within a relatively short period. However, further studies are necessary to evaluate a wider range of operating conditions, to test chainsaws with different power levels, and to assess the potential impact of future battery developments.