Personally I think it will be a long time before lithium becomes common place on counterbalance lifts and reach trucks. Until the price gap closes between lead acid and lithium it's hard to justify the cost.

As for hoping for 5 min charge times in the future I cannot see that being a reality. What about charger input currents? You would need say a minimum of a 48v 200ah lithium battery to give a 1.5 tonne counterbalance a 2-3 hour run time and to be able to allow enough peak current for motor operations without overstressing the cells.

This is only approximate and based on 100% efficiency but 48v x 200ah is a 9.6kwh battery to charge in 1hr would require the same charger input, however to charge in 5 minutes would require approximately a 115kw charger input!!!!! Plus another 25-30% for inefficiencies and your up to roughly 150kw input.
Now your average industrial unit doesn't have anywhere near this level of power available on their buildings mains main feeder let alone just to charge a forklift.

I do agree though in the under 5 tonne bracket I'm struggling to justify diesel over electric now. Clean, quiet and plenty of torque. Modern AC counterbalances are the only forklifts that don't struggle to climb the back of a beaver tail lorry, just sail up no fuss at all, a minor point I know but blows the 'power' argument out the water.

Electric is the future but there is a long way to go, and it's not just the fork trucks themselves.