profg, you are right the plant and materials handling industry is some times a long way behind the Automotive industry,

But on electric vehicles they are a long way in front in some ways, Trucks have now been looking at CNG to lower emissions and using SCR systems, What we have found is a way to lower Nox to a level that they can be totally removed allowing our truck to be 100% zero emission. Its not just the fuel we use even though that plays a major part of the process.

If you look at new IC forklifts for next year they will have to be TIER V this is causing a lot of problems for OEM'S, some have even gone down the LPG route to pass the emission. now when you look at the mid range trucks 6,000kg - 10,000kg this problem becomes even more greater this is why many companies have launched new electric trucks in this range over the last 24 - 18 month. Now these have there own problems like battery charging. In my opinion the best way to do this is to have a hybrid system that will charge the battery then shut down only to restart when the battery is at around 30% charge. what we have also been able to do is have the engine running at 100% zero emission and at the best performance for fuel efficiency a bit like how a hydrostatic truck works on efficiency