With regards to your comment (exalt) regarding power consumed when charging, of course you are correct. The charger is very powerful and will consume more energy.

Conveniently you forget to mention that the charge time is around 15% of a lead acid battery though.

Charging a lithium battery is way cheaper than charging a lead acid...

Hey Mil O, just out of curiosity can you share some ballpark pricing on what your SL48-450D or SL48-550D batteries are going for these days? I'm also wondering if you can share any details on what your warranty looks like? I searched around on your website but couldn't put my finger on any warranty information.

What's the energy cost of charging a BYD truck against a regular electric truck, also whats the energy consumption of the BYD battery a 5,000kg normal forklift with battery would use around 12 kwh / h whats BYD kwh/h per hour plus what the chaging time and range of a BYD truck. To the customer this is all important as this is what they are paying for. If the BYD truck cost a lot more to charge and has a much higher kwh/h then you would be better with a normal truck

No its a new system that coming from the automotive industry

Exalt, what is this new fuel cell you talk about, is it the aluminium version ?

There real cost of fuel cell are the hydrogen filling stations set up. There is a new type of fuel cell this wil be in the market within this year that you don't need hydrogen for. The fueling system is very easy to install and has no need for high pressure system and can be stored in regular plastic tanks. This could be gravity fed or by a electric pump. The only by product of this fuel cell is water. The cost of these trucks will be comparable with trucks in today's market for either diesel electric or LPG.


These trucks will be 100% Zero emission and have the same range as a diesel truck and the same refueling time

Non hydrogen Fuel Cells are already in the market. Nothing new there.
All fuel cell types in material handing equipment have one big hurdle and that is economy of scale. There are large fleets in the US running on fuel cells because the capital and site investment costs are positively negated by the reduced running costs and ability to utilize the equipment 24/7.
It's doubtful at current costs that fuel cells have the ability to penetrate the European market.

The alternate to hydrogen is methanol, easily stored ( no high pressure required) comparable cost to unit of electricity, readily available, easily dispensed visa automatic fuel pump like units.
However, it all comes back to economy of scale. Also there is the added maintenance cost of the fuel cell

The hydrogen market in the UK is not very good this again could be said for Europe as well.So it will be either Diesel Electric or LPG.

What BYD will have to show is that they can compete with Fuel cell trucks when they arrive,how do the BYD trucks perform when the battery is Half used do they keep there performance or do the lose it like lead acid batteries

I think the fact that this post has gained the the response that it has shows that BYD are not being ignored by the trade, if anything bring closely watched as the confidence in the battery is huge (nobody offers 10K hours or 8 years without knowing its bomb proof).

However, most of the larger companies don't build the rest of the truck to last over 5 years as the trucks only do a 5 year contract and then get either scrapped or moved on to second hand dealers.

So my comment was more based on how the rest of the truck (motors, wiring, chassis, axle) will last after 5 years of abuse.

Especially as the target user is the one that's interested in "no maintenance"

I can't comment on hydrogen fuel cells as the UK market does not seem to have a place for them (in my experience anyway)

The market has been fairly stagnant when it comes to new ideas for the past few years. It would be great if BYD can come and shake things up!

Whatever you might hear regarding 'the big boys', I can assure you that whilst they may have similar product to BYD, the price they demand will be significantly more that you will pay from us.

They ALL buy their B's + C's from third parties, they ALL make their own margin and they ALL are selling products with shorter warranties (5 years vs. 8 years)

BYD are making good in roads into the UK market, we now have 100+ units either in service or on the way and most of these are from orders of 1, 2 or 3 machines. The big plus in this case is that we are receiving orders from multiple customers allowing our dealers to develop the proposition steadily and more importantly, profitably.

I still find it slightly amusing that the industry continues to underestimate us.

We look forward to surprising more competitors and customers in the coming months with new product launches and hopefully more success at IFOY...

But please, feel free to keep ignoring us, we really don't mind!!

Battery Technology is now moving faster than ever quite simply there will be battery trucks in the market before the end of 2018 that will run on a new fuel. They will be an all electric truck run on fuel cell but not hydrogen that will be able to have the same range as an equivalent Diesel or LPG truck but be 100% electric.


This new technology is now being proven in other areas such as automotive. It will carry the same benefits of Hydrogen as they wont lose power like the standard batter trucks and will be able to be refueled in under 5 min. But unlike hydrogen they wont need Hi pressure fueling systems

With all the "big boys" in the MHE world investing so heavily in Li-Ion power in already proven trucks, I think BYD's selling point of its battery will only last so long.

When the Jungheinrich, Crown, Linde etc has the same battery (or equivalent), how will the BYD stand out then?

Great to see a newcomer to the market, but only having one selling point may make its success short lived.

My company Navitas Systems has introduced a full line of UL-Recognized lithium forklift batteries called Starlifter--spanning Classes 1 through 3 and voltages of 24, 36, and 48 Volts. Check out the data sheets and product videos at lithiumforkliftpower dot com.

We are a BYD dealer in Houston TX, we have demo the BYD's with great success the battery has proven it's self over and over. We are very excited about the future opportunities with the product.

You should contact my colleague Brian Rippie who can guide you regarding clients successfully using BYD forklifts with LiFePo4. His number is +1 (213) 399-7570

Regards

Gary Winter BYD UK