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You are here: Home / News / Forklift News / A battery revolution?

A battery revolution?

Lithium-ion batteries may be on the verge of a breakthrough in the material handling market, as prices inch down and warehouse and DC managers seek lower-maintenance, higher-productivity solutions.

Interest in lithium-ion (l-i) batteries for material handling applications has been growing over the last 10 years, but adoption of the technology in North America has been slow, to say the least.

That may be about to change in 2018.

There was no shortage of l-i battery and forklift products introduced to the market last year, and the trend promises to continue as prices come down and warehouse and distribution center managers turn a willing ear to companies touting the advantages of lithium-ion technology. Such trends put the battery market—which has seen few technology revolutions in the last 100 years—on the verge of a major change, with some industry experts predicting that l-i will take a good portion of the lift truck market, and in particular, away from traditional lead-acid batteries, in the not-too-distant future.

“Cell prices [for lithium-ion] are dropping and are targeted to be around $100 per kilowatt hour in two to four years, and at that point, it will be less of a sticker shock to [buyers],” says Porter Harris, chief technology officer at Romeo Power Technologies, a maker of high-performance battery packs for a range of applications, including forklifts and other electric vehicles. The cost of l-i batteries has been the biggest barrier to adoption in material handling, Harris adds, and as that comes down on a broader scale, more companies will be interested in hearing the return on investment (ROI) side of the story. Still, Harris and others stop short of putting a number to the share of market l-i may capture in the short term.

“Lithium will have a significant share of the lift truck market [in] 2018 leading into 2019,” Harris says. “It really depends on how quick [manufacturers] are to incorporate the new technology into their vehicles, as it already makes business sense.”

Read the entire article in DC Velocity here.

About the Author

Sue Boczenowski is the Marketing Manager for Abel Womack.

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