Broader choice and lower prices boost robot mower sales

Robot mower sales in Estonia have increased severalfold in recent years, according to importers and retailers cited by ERR. Retailers say the automated systems save garden owners time, physical effort and fuel.

“Robot mower sales have grown two or three times compared with a few years ago,” said Jaanus Vahesalu, chief executive of Husqvarna Eesti, which imports and represents Husqvarna robot mowers.

Teet Tallo, purchasing manager at Decora, a company selling construction materials and garden goods, said technology had advanced significantly. Installing and managing robot mowers had become affordable for homeowners without the need to hire specialists, he said.

Vahesalu said robot mowers had been considered a luxury product when his company began selling them in 2007. More people could now afford the machines because retailers offered instalment payments, he said.

Neither company provided exact sales figures, despite confirming that sales had increased.

Husqvarna robot mowers cost about 1,200 to 4,000 euros in Estonia, while cheaper alternatives are available for around 300 to 500 euros. Tallo said the wider range of products and price points had improved access to the machines, with less expensive models available both for owners of terraced-house gardens and for those with large lawns.

The value of buying a robot mower also depends on the size of the land being maintained. Vahesalu said a robot mower could be expensive compared with a conventional mower for smaller urban plots of about 1,000 square metres. For larger plots of roughly 1,500 to 2,000 square metres, he recommended considering a ride-on mower.

Ride-on mowers also generally cost several thousand euros or more, meaning the price difference compared with a robot mower is not necessarily large, depending on the size of the area to be cut, Vahesalu said.

Customers are also increasingly choosing robot mowers because they operate quietly. Vahesalu said some city residents had cited local noise restrictions, which they felt made it difficult to use conventional mowers at weekends.

The first robot mower models reached the global market in the 1990s, but they only began spreading more widely in Estonia in the second half of the 2000s. In Estonia, they are now available in several price ranges, with premium brands such as Husqvarna, Gardena and Stiga competing with cheaper alternatives sold under brands including Worx, Yard Force and Parkside.