Is This the Year You Get an Electric Forklift?

Is an electric forklift on your purchase list? If not, you may want to take another look.

Electrics have continued to grow in popularity. According to MHL News, electric forklifts accounted for 64% of the forklift market in 2019, with the numbers expected to keep going up.

Not only do electric forklifts reduce costs, they're more efficient, with strong performance and flexible use. They're even better for the environment.

In this article we'll go through each of these advantages. By the end you'll have a collection of important points to guide decisions on the year's forklift purchases.

Advantage 1: Electric Cost Savings over LPG Forklifts

By buying electric, you reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) over the life of the forklift as compared to an LPG or diesel truck.

According to an Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) study:

• $.040 worth of electricity does the same work as $2.50 worth of liquid propane.
• Electric forklifts have fewer moving parts which can reduce maintenance costs up to 40%.
• On a single LPG forklift running 2,000 hours per year with a burn rate of 1.5 gallons an hour and a cost of $2.50 per gallon, it would use about $7,500.00 per year in fuel.

An electric forklift running 2,000 hours a year, burning 6KW/hr with 1KW costing $0.10, the fuel cost would be $1,200.00 per year. (That’s a savings of $6,300.00 a year in fuel alone!)

Advantage 2: Electric Performance

Until recently, you could only use electric forklifts indoors, and on limited runs. It stopped many businesses from even considering electrics, believing they couldn't meet the demand. That's no longer the case.

Now thanks to sealed motors, electric forklifts will work just as well outdoors as they do indoors. With higher-capacity lithium batteries, they now provide equal or higher productivity than LPG models.

Any newer electric truck will go for the same 2,000 hours/year an LPG will, at the same speeds and lift capacities. Some will even go to 2,500 hours/year, making them a superior option!

Advantage 3: Flexibility with Shift Scheduling

It's now common for an electric to run 2 shifts (16-20 hours) on 1 battery charge (8-12 hours). No extra time needed for refueling – plug the forklift in overnight, and it's ready to go again in the morning.

Got a break between shifts? You can "top up" an electric's battery at any time, even in small amounts (on most models). Plug in, take your break, and get back to it.

Advantage 4: Electrics are Climate-Friendly

Electric power has the lowest well-to-wheels greenhouse gases of any fuel source. That alone makes it cleaner than a diesel forklift.

However, that's not the only climate-friendly aspect to electrics. Because they're running purely on electricity, they emit no carbon dioxide, no carbon monoxide, and no nitrous oxide inside your facility.

Oil spills? Coolant leaks? A thing of the past. Add the quiet of an electric forklift's operation, and you're making workers safer as well as reducing the chances of accidents.

Finally, you can recycle newer lithium electric batteries. Add all of these up and you've hit a climate-friendly status your LPG-driving competitors can't hope to match!

Keep Electric Forklifts in Mind for the Year's Purchases

Advantages like these add up to one thing for your business: higher profits.

FMH has had electric forklifts covered for years, bringing you trucks from Heli, Clark, Crown, Doosan, and Jungheinrich.

In 2020, we added a new electric brand: Carer. View Carer models in the FMHSolutions.com Inventory here.