Autonomous technology is elevating the prices of landscaping equipment to the point at which financing is not only essential but encouraged, signaling a broader shift in the industry.
Innovation in the landscaping equipment industry is creating a need for financing that previously didn’t exist, David Johnson, president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Positec Americas, told Equipment Finance News at Equip Expo in Louisville, Ky., this week. Positec Americas is an affiliate of Kress parent company Positec Group.
For example, outdoor power equipment manufacturer Kress Commercial’s Voyager mower is a fully autonomous robotic machine slated to hit the market in March 2026, at a cost of $60,000, he said.
Kress is encouraging buyers to finance the Voyager over five years to maximize annual profits as it reduces labor costs significantly, Johnson said. The average landscaping company spends roughly $75,000 on mowing annually between labor, equipment and maintenance, he noted.
“If I take that $60,000 over 12 [months], plus whatever interest is on top of that, and the cost, let’s just say, goes from $75,000 to $13,000 or $14,000 a year, that’s an 80-plus percent delta savings in autonomous mowing versus traditional mowing,” he said. “The landscaper, if they’re smart and they move the payments over five years, can make a lot of extra profit.”
The Voyager’s fully autonomous capabilities set it apart from many other robotic mowers, most of which are semi-autonomous, Johnson said. Semi-autonomous mowers require occasional human intervention and rely on boundary wires to operate within GPS-defined zones, whereas fully autonomous mowers can travel between properties without human oversight.
Other high-end autonomous mowers on the market cost from $25,000 to upward of $50,000, according to online listings.
Industry shift
The landscaping equipment market is becoming increasingly competitive, with OEMs such as John Deere, Husqvarna and Honda all introducing fully autonomous mowers this year.
A strong financing operation is crucial to gaining a competitive edge, Chris Overman, a district sales manager of outdoor power OEM The Toro Co., said during a news conference at Equip Expo.
“It’s going to be a big part of any sort of asset acquisition,” he said.
At the expo, Toro introduced the Proline AMI, a high-power autonomous mower that cuts more than 2 acres per hour, Director of Marketing Nolan Bangert said. The company is also focusing on after-cut appearance to stand apart from competitors, he said.
“What we’ve seen on the other side is a lot of technology coming into the space and trying to figure out how to cut grass afterwards,” he said. “We actually take the opposite approach.”
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