Anyone who has worked around lift trucks knows the feeling of when their lift truck starts to drag. An electric powered industrial truck that should be zipping down the aisle starts to show reluctance. Lift speeds are cut significantly, and acceleration hesitates. The operator can feel it; the forklift’s battery voltage is dropping fast. It’s time to head to the battery room and wait for the battery room attendant to come to the rescue. The over-the-road transport will have to wait, and the dock door will need to stay occupied for another 15 minutes while the battery gets changed. Demurrage charges start climbing and freeway traffic starts to build. The cascading impact of motive energy problems are felt well beyond the lift truck.

For years, material handling teams absorbed these throughput interruptions with stoic resolve. Lead-acid batteries had been around forever, and most operations built their schedules around the reality of 8-8-8 charging windows, sagging performance, and the grind of neverending maintenance challenges in the charging room. We just got used to it as the price of doing business, until now.

2025 was hard enough without the continuous drag of legacy energy systems. Throughput targets did not slow down. International trade surprises, rising labor expenses, space constraints, the scarcity of capital maintenance challenges, and mounting energy costs all took their toll. On top of that, finding reliable lift truck operators just got harder. All this pressure has pushed industry professionals to explore new energy solutions to solve their material handling productivity challenges. Luckily, a new motive energy solution appeared: high-efficiency, high-throughput, fast-charge lithium-ion batteries. With an increase in industry adoption, the technology is seeing tremendous growth with an expected CAGR of 13.5% through 2030.

Lead-acid batteries have not disappeared. They are still prevalent. But the conversation has changed from “upfront cost” to “total cost of ownership” The savings are significant in high intensity applications.

UgoWork: Surpassing expectations during tough times

For UgoWork, 2025 was all about surpassing expectations—ones centered on reliability, performance, cost control and support.

Customers were scrutinizing every aspect when it came to switching battery vendors and motive energy strategy. And through all of it, UgoWork delivered in the areas that mattered most on the warehouse floor.

The first was reliability backed by real engineering depth. UgoWork continued building momentum with its batteries achieving the highest level of UL Listed certification and receiving growing enthusiastic OEM qualification across major forklift manufacturers. Every new approval meant smoother installs and fewer surprises once forklift trucks were in use.

The second was having manufacturing close to the customers who needed it. With facilities in both Canada and the United States, UgoWork avoided long overseas timelines and unpredictable routing. When fleets needed lithium-ion batteries quickly, the team could respond fast. That proximity turned into exceptional agility on the ground.

The third was a business model built for flexibility. UgoWork’s Energy as a Service removed the CapEx barrier for companies that needed performance but could not commit to major upfront equipment purchases. Instead of buying batteries, fleets bought uptime. Dealers embraced it because it made decision-making easier for their customers and removed friction in a year marked by financial caution.

UgoWork also met customers’ support needs head-on. When maintenance managers called, they reached experts on the first try. Troubleshooting was often done remotely and in just a few minutes. Above all, proactive 24/7 battery monitoring flagged issues before they shut down an aisle. Customers noticed. Many said UgoWork’s support felt like an extension of their own team.

And the fourth was UgoWork’s technology. We launched our Generation 6 lithium-ion batteries. The design zeroed in on simplicity. Making plug-and-play backwardly compatible installation a no-brainer. Deployment is headache-free. The learning curve proved to be ultra-short for both technicians and operators through practical, clear documentation and tools.

With all these advantages that UgoWork brings to the table, the results spoke for themselves. Customers saw the difference. Dealers felt it. And many said the same thing after making the switch: they would not go back to legacy battery systems.

What’s next: Raising the bar even more

UgoWork is already pushing into the next phase by turning artificial intelligence (AI) into a day-to-day operational tool rather than a buzzword.

The goal is clear-cut. Give customers even more actionable insight into how their lift truck fleets behave and turn that data into decisions that save money and keep trucks running shift after shift. AI is becoming the engine behind smarter charging strategies and deeper visibility into how operators actually use their equipment. And we are just getting started.

The dealer network is set to play an even bigger role for UgoWork in 2026. Expanding this network means more regional support, faster on-site service times, and more battery experts who can support our customers.

Another priority is helping customers understand the true cost of ownership (TCO) when transitioning from lead-acid to lithium-ion batteries.

UgoWork helps customers map out their actual usage, right-size their fleets, identify the hidden costs of their current energy setups, and build a long-term business case grounded in achievable savings.