Greenworks MaximusZ: A 41-HP Electric Zero-Turn Mower That Undercuts Gas Rivals on Price
The Verge has published its review of the Greenworks MaximusZ, an electric zero-turn riding mower that delivers 41 horsepower across five brushless motors at a retail price of $8,799, undercutting comparable gas machines while exceeding the power output of professional-grade units costing more than twice as much.
The MaximusZ is driven by two high-torque brushless hub motors for the wheels and three additional brushless motors that independently spin a trio of cutting blades across a 54-inch deck. Brushless motors, which use electronic controllers instead of physical brushes to deliver current, are more efficient and longer-lasting than traditional motors. Greenworks claims the combined output exceeds the Toro 6000 Series, a professional-tier rider priced at $18,899. The MaximusZ also comes in cheaper than the Stihl RZ 552, a gas zero-turn listed at $9,499. The 54-inch deck configuration reviewed by The Verge is one of two cutting-width options Greenworks offers; a 60-inch variant is also available.
Power comes from an 80-volt battery architecture using four 6.0Ah packs and two 16Ah packs, the latter weighing 17 pounds each, for a combined capacity of 56Ah. Greenworks rates this configuration for four acres of mowing per charge, with a proprietary 1.5kW charger delivering a full replenishment in approximately 3.5 hours. Maximum travel speed is 8 mph. A 4.0-inch LCD displays state of charge, maximum mower speed, maximum blade speed, and total runtime. Mowing height is set in quarter-inch increments via a right-side pedal that lifts the entire deck, pinned at the desired position.
Greenworks offers the MaximusZ platform in both 60V and 80V variants with differing battery bundles and runtime ratings. The 60V 54-inch package ships with two 20.0Ah, two 8.0Ah, and two 4.0Ah batteries and is rated for up to 3.5 acres and 85 minutes of runtime. The 80V 54-inch configuration carries two 16Ah and one 4.0Ah battery and is rated for 2.88 acres and 70 minutes. The 80V 60-inch variant, bundled with four 8Ah and two 16Ah batteries, is rated for 5.12 acres and 120 minutes of runtime. The 60V platform is rated at 31 HP equivalent, below the 80V's 41 HP.
Pro Tool Reviews, testing the MaximusZ in March 2024, measured runtime at approximately 2.25 hours, a figure that aligns with but does not match Greenworks' own acreage claims. The Verge's reviewer tested the mower across 1.5 acres of mowable land split among a half-dozen small patches and a larger pasture, providing a real-world usage scenario that exercises the zero-turn maneuverability and the deck-lift mechanism in tight spaces rather than purely open-field cutting.
The MaximusZ includes a small dumper bed on the rear and a tow hitch, positioning it beyond a dedicated mower into a utility-vehicle role. Boot time after key turn is approximately eight seconds, which the LCD and motor controllers occupy before the machine is ready to move. The 54-inch deck is the width reviewed; the 60-inch option widens the cutting swath and raises the rated acreage per charge.
Greenworks, headquartered in Changzhou, China, historically operated as a white-label tool manufacturer for other brands before building its own product lines. The company opened a manufacturing facility in Tennessee in 2023, establishing domestic U.S. production capacity for its outdoor power equipment.
The broader context here is the migration of outdoor power equipment from small gas engines to battery-electric drivetrains, a transition that has progressed from handheld tools like string trimmers, chain saws, and leaf blowers into the zero-turn rider category, which represents the most demanding power and runtime requirements in residential and light-commercial landscaping. The MaximusZ's five-motor architecture eliminates the mechanical complexity of belt-driven blade spindles and hydrostatic transaxles (the hydraulic systems that transmit power to the wheels in gas riders), replacing them with direct-drive brushless motors that can be individually controlled for speed and torque. That shift mirrors what happened in automotive engineering, where electric drivetrains removed transmissions, differentials, and associated failure points in favor of software-managed torque distribution.
Worth flagging is the runtime gap between manufacturer claims and independent measurements. Greenworks' four-acre rating for the 80V 54-inch configuration assumes specific grass conditions, blade speed settings, and travel speeds that may not hold across varied terrain. Pro Tool Reviews' 2.25-hour measured runtime, while not directly comparable because the test configuration and conditions differ, suggests real-world results will vary materially from spec-sheet figures, as they do with gas mower fuel consumption. Buyers evaluating the MaximusZ against a gas zero-turn's multi-tank range should weight the 3.5-hour recharge time as a hard constraint on daily productivity, particularly for commercial operators.
The $8,799 price positions the MaximusZ at the entry-to-mid range of gas zero-turn pricing while delivering power output that competes with machines well above its tier. The Tennessee manufacturing footprint and the platform's modular battery architecture, shared across 60V and 80V Greenworks tools, suggest the company is building for scale rather than producing a halo product in limited volume. For buyers with acreage in the two-to-four-acre range, the economics and the elimination of fuel, oil, and belt maintenance make the MaximusZ a credible replacement rather than a compromise.
