With its glowing blue accent lighting, the c3E – the industry’s first electric trencher – was hard to miss in the Ditch Witch booth at the recent ARA Show.
The compact, walk-behind trencher offers instant torque and power to the ground thanks to its advanced electric motor. It can trench up to 3 feet deep and 6 inches wide through up to 1,000 feet of clay on a single charge.
Ditch Witch Product Manager Brant Kukuk says that battery life should be sufficient for a variety of irrigation and utility installation projects performed by homeowners, landscapers or contractors.
“If you’re installing a sprinkler system in a front yard, that’s probably a 500-foot job, so you’d be capable of doing two sprinkler systems. That’ll cover most of a day’s work,” he says. “You’re typically not trenching all day. There’s a lot of short drop work that happens with these machines.”
The battery is fixed and must be charged on the machine. An internal charger allows the c3E to be charged in approximately 8 hours on a standard 120-volt outlet or in 6 hours with a 240-volt outlet.
Ditch Witch says the increased power enables the c3E to trench at faster speeds than a gas equivalent. A new adaptive cruise control feature will self-regulate the trenching speed to maximize performance.
“This will outperform our gas model because of the torque and power that the electric motor has,” says Kukuk. “It’s going to clear the obstacles faster and you’re going to be able to trench a lot faster. This is about a two-to-one trenching speed over the gas.”
The c3E features a production undercarriage and Ditch Witch’s patented track system. “The short and long track staggered design allows the machine to be more compact and stable,” said Kukuk.
Additional benefits of the electric package include intuitive controls, easy starting capabilities, less noise pollution, reduced equipment vibration reduced maintenance. Outside of charging, there is no daily maintenance, including no fueling, oil changes or grease zerks.
Ditch Witch is currently gauging demand for the new model and plans to start production in 2026. “We’re starting to get interest and allow people to start budgeting for 2026 purchases with this in consideration,” said Kukuk. 
A look at the operator station on the Ditch Witch c3E electric trencher.Equipment World
Ditch Witch says the glowing blue accent light will make its way onto the production model of the c3E.Equipment World
