I worked on 1 of the first BYD forklifters provided in Europe.
That one has allmost 13000 hours of workingtime in less then 4 years.
No issues with the battery what so ever.
In the last couple of years i have seen only minor problems with these battery's, mostly because costumer leaves contact on for weekend with only 15% SOC battery. Battery will discharge to much and charger will not start. With some tricks you can recover the battery without losing capacity. Try that with a Lead/Acid battery.

Lithium is here and the cost is finally where it needs to be to replace lead acid. LiFePO4 is the most stable right now and is used in the BYD trucks. At least the last time I checked. Standard warranties are 5 years or 3,000 CYCLES (Not hours) a cycle is usually 10 hours vs. 8 hrs holding an 80% depth of discharge. There is no maintenance, no battery changes and the performance of the truck does not slip like lead acid. In reality these batteries should perform for 10 years and they have in other countries. At 2 times the price of lead acid it is crazy to not look at this technology. They perform in temperatures down to -5 degrees F. Lead acid only goes down to 32 degree F before performance drops off. They would replace about 4 lead acid batteries and have all the other perks mentioned. They are sealed so they are better in the food industry. They all have battery monitors and are extremely safe. Interesting conversation.

One factor that not many folks talk about or just completely ignore when it comes to these unique and energy efficent/environmental friendly fuels system - CNG, electric passenger cars, even ammonia based zero emission powered machines etc. etc. is the residual value of the lift ruck, machine, automobile, at the end of it's economic life and the retail price in the second hand market.
Things that help destroy the value for example is that the CNG powered machine that tank has a an expiration date & will need to be replacing (10 years I believe by Fed. law), the fuel system takes unique training to work on, or for added cost it can be converted back to LPG for a gost. The used truck buyer is very unlikely have a refill system handy. Passenger cars/truck/SUVs - hybrids or electric - you pay more for them to start with - those batteries will need replacing some time down the road - and they ain't cheap - I'm certain some one will come along and market another "snake oil" product that will rejuvenate those batteries too of course at a fraction of the cost of a new battery. To me an all electric car is just a toy to show around town 'cause you ain't going to take a trip to Yellow Stone National Park from say Chicago or Bismark, North Dakota in it or take a trip out to West Texas from Forth Worth, TX to watch the mesquite bushes grow on ground dryer than a rock and hope you don't get caught in a dust storm but if you do you might see a tumbleweed blow around. In a nut shell they just ain't practical for the everyday Joe or Joanne plus not very affordable for them either. Heck a good Soccer Mom can burn thru one battery charge in a day and the recharge stations just ain't every where. have a neighbor that has a BMW electric - she says it is a "fun" car- range 200 miles, charge time 7 hours - price tag $44K (USD) for a fun car - my second house only cost $40K on a 1/2 acre lot in 1974. Last week recently had to go to Atlanta to a hospital - 50 miles away - our son had a kidney transplant - all is good so far. Had to make two round trips in one day or 200 miles. Glad I had a fossil fueled Chevy Impala. Don't think that BMW would it have made it the full 200 mph with all the stop and go traffic. My last trip took only 2.5 hours (one way - rush hour). Should take 59 minutes one way per Mapquest - Ha!

Fuel Cell is extremely expensive at the moment... You need a constant supply of hydrogen (which you can´t usually find in your local gas station). You can then produce it but is gonna cost you quite a lot in the long run, you´d better have a huge fleet plus a good H&S implementation to avoid potential accidents, which in case of hydrogen can be fatal.

Yes, it´s supposed to be clean, probably the cleanest. Yes, if you have supply is quick to refill... but with all the caveats above. I´d definitely not go for this technology for the moment.

Hyder has a hot sell electric forklift with Lithium Iron Phosphate battery.It's with high quality and most importantly with reasonable price

The products are getting better but they still a long way away with spare parts and after sales.

Well, actually Chinese manufacturers are getting better and better and innovative technologies. I say they're a force to be reckoned with in the industry.
____________________________________________________
Alexandra
Also see https://chariotsgcs.com/en/category/byd-en/

The benefit of lithium style batteries are seen mainly 2-3 shift applications. I am not sure i would trust any Chinese forklifts in this type of application.

The correct term is Lithium Iron Phosphate.
Presumably many companies will still have new forklifts to replace the worn out ones, so our Starlifter battery can be used to power that new truck.

The big factor on ROI is # of pallets moved per shift; because our Starlifter lithium forklift battery has higher voltage than lead acid, and it maintains that voltage throughout the shift; you can now accomplish more work with less staff and equipment. 70% of running a fleet is the labor. So in 2-3 shift applications and assuming a 7% improvement in productivity, payback on Starlifter can be in as few as 15 months.

There is no Lithium in these batteries. They are Iron Phosphate batteries. Lithium Ion and Iron Phosphate are two very different kinds of batteries

The issue is with the acquisition costs and parts support. In Canada, it's approximately $80 000.00 for a standard 2 ton BYD forklift. We did the math, and these machines will only have a return on investment for operations running 24 hours a day. This brings up the next big issue, the forklift itself. Everyone is focused on the battery and nothing else, but the issue here is that the battery will outlive the forklift, negating any return on investment.

This is a reply to forklifterinpa (for some reason it sends me to the end of this thread): Sorry I just saw your question after returning from travels.

It's ultra-competitive in the new lithium (and also fuel cell) energy storage markets, so no one (including us) publishes prices or warranty. In general, lithium prices are 3-4x lead acid and warranty is 2x or more lead acid. If you have 3 shifts and battery changing you're already equal. The big delta though is the significant increase in pallets moved per hour due to our Starlifter lithium forklift battery's stiff voltage from hour 1 to the end of the shift. Raymond Corp always says that 70% of the cost of running a forklift fleet is the labor, so if you can offer with Starlifter a 15% increase in productivity, a company can handle their growth with the same manpower and the same equipment fleet.

Hi wicks40, as with traditional forklifts, the charge time depends on the combination of battery and charger employed together with the SOC of the battery when the charge commences.

If you take our most common combination which is 80V270ah in conjunction with a 200amp charger, based on charging from 20% to 100%, the charge time would be 1.08 hours.

But the battery need never be recharged back to 100%. All you need is sufficient charge to keep the truck working until the next period of rest or break when the battery can be charged again.

If you need to know more, please contact me initially via my LinkedIn page and I will be pleased to discuss the truck, battery and charger in more detail with you.

PS - all of our ECB chargers are 440v, three phase and require a 32amp type D breaker.

Regards

Gary Winter
Country Manager - UK & Ireland, BYD Forklifts

What is the voltage needed to charge a BYD forklift and what is the charging time

Hi Yes i agree Charging a BYD truck would take less time what i was wondering is how much energy a BYD truck users per hour. A standard 5,000kg forklift would use around 12 Kw/H of electric per hour to run the truck. How much KW/h would an equivalent BYD truck use