Thanks for the offer Ben but for the use and abuse our operators give our trucks we stick with what we know which is a mixed fleet of jungheinrich and crown. My biggest concern is the fact that it is still a Chinese built machine and the support isn't up there with what we are used to for the ones that I have seen so far. We have just shy of 500 pieces of plant on site most running 24 hours with battery swaps and in my experience with a good battery mate nance regime we rarely have problems with lead acid until the truck is end of life anyway

Hi Lifter01,

The guarantee on the BYD battery isnt just that the battery will last for 8 years/10,000 hours but that it will be operating at at least 65% of its original capacity after 8years/10,000hrs. In fact in our experience that is on the low side, most of the tests and simulations we have run show the battery operating at 75%+ after 4,000 cycles (a lead acid battery is usually dead after 1500-1800 cycles). Paired with the speed it charges at and the option of opportune charging there should be no reason why the forklift isnt still meeting its needs 10-15 years down the line.

I appreciate that for all the claims, the proof is in the pudding so if you ever want to see it in action, we would be happy to give you a free trial for a few weeks.

One of my issues is the 8 year 10000 hour warranty it sounds great on paper but 25 hours a week??? We currently get 5 years warranty from enersys on our lead acid batteries. At the 10000 hours quoted the bud batteries would be out of warranty before our lead acid,s so for us it's a non starter

Hi,

As mentioned above, we at IVS are a dealer for BYD in the UK. We are currently offering demos of our BYD products and in the near future will have stock available in our showroom.

If anyone has any questions, more information, or wants to see this new technology in action please get in touch!

I have seen something where BYD have used their tech to manufacture buses.these seem to be working well.

BYD seem to be a very large company that has the funding to develop new ideas mainly in Battery powered machinery.

Simple but effective in entering the market and over time might take on the major companies.

Companies like some leading European manufacturers simply improve their products over what the market demands and there for will ultamitly lose market share for being to expensive to purchase and maintain.

This is being shown by the emergence of some Asian mamufactures.

They don't sell the battery seperately. Even if they do, it's way more expensive than lead-acid one.

They use Zapi controller. The battery is good. No need to maintain, and it takes only 90 minutes to be fully charged.

Just to give you an example of the technology in use... The batteries in the electric BYD buses that London has just purchased is the same.

http://www.byd.com/news/news-287.html

Hi Burt,

It is true and the technology is already in use. We would be happy to come and talk to you regarding the range available if you would like to know more? Its a very exciting time for the industry! At present, we are the only dealer in the UK.

What about the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is". Why has no one used this type of battery before.

I too was reading an article in SHD magazine July issue, here in the UK last week about the BYD trucks, i'm quite interested in the new battery technologies and have been speaking to a couple of contacts in the battery industry to see if this is actually viable tech or just sales chat.
If it is true on the report i read, this has the potential to be massive, at last the end to operators wrecking batteries through poor maintenance.

anything you found yet ?