Kalmar li-ion Super Heavy electric forklifts
Kalmar rolled out its first-ever li-ion-equipped electric “medium” forklift at last week’s ACT Expo – but Kalmar’s medium isn’t like your medium. Kalmar’s medium forklift trucks can hoist up to 40,000 lbs. And their biggest models can lift more than 4x that. (!)
This week’s news focused on the newest Kalmar medium electric forklift. Like the company’s existing lead-acid-powered offerings, the new Kalmar medium offers lifting capacities up to 18 tons and is designed for demanding material handling applications across industries including forestry, metals, logistics, and heavy industry. The equipment can be configured with a wide range of masts, forks, carriages and special attachments tailored to specific operational needs enabling it to handle diverse load types including lumber, steel coils, and bulk materials – but adds lithium-ion batteries that allow significantly faster 2 hr. charging times that support opportunity charging between shifts for even less operational downtime.
The new li-ion batteries and faster charging times allow Kalmar to deliver a product that their global customer base has been asking for, while the company’s new Thermal Management System works to maintain optimal battery and system temperatures across a wide range of operating conditions, supporting consistent performance and battery life.
“Expanding our electric portfolio in North America is a key step in supporting our customers’ transition toward more sustainable operations,” explains Alf-Gunnar Karlgren, President, Counterbalance, Kalmar. “This medium electric forklift range combines the performance and versatility our customers expect with the benefits of zero-emission technology, making it well suited for a wide range of demanding industrial applications.”
Other features include an ergonomically designed operator cabin that delivers greater comfort and control courtesy of the quiet, vibration-free electric power for more efficient operation across a range of indoor and outdoor environments.
Electrek’s Take
If you’re not familiar with the freight and logistics space, you need to understand that there are tens of thousands of heavy-duty vehicles involved in getting the goods and services you interact with everyday from point A to point B, and a huge percentage of those vehicles never make it onto a highway. So, while an electric long-haul semi truck is a huge deal, Kalmar expects to sell nearly 3,000 of these super heavy “medium” electric forklifts this year. Terminal tractors are on the menu, too, along with smaller battery-powered forklifts, material handlers, and more.
In other words: if you’re serious about decarbonization, you might make a bigger impact electrifying the logistics space most people never see than you would by convincing your neighbor to trade their Rav4 for a Model Y.
I got the chance to try the big Kalmar forklift truck on for size on the show floor, and we’ll have a Quick Charge interview with the brand’s North American sales manager, Eric Streich, in the weeks ahead – stay tuned!
SOURCE: Kalmar, photos by the author.
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