First-Ever Chinese Win at IFOY Awards

Chinese forklift manufacturer BYD, formerly best known for its range of electric buses, has scored a major triumph at the International Forklift of the Year Awards, announced at CeMAT last week. “The BYD ECB18C electric forklift does not need to fear comparison with its European competitors. On the contrary, BYD electric forklifts offer a real added value for the operators with their economic and sustainable battery technology,” said a member of the jury.

“We are very pleased with our victory and the IFOY AWARD for our BYD electric forklift ECB18C in the category of counterbalance forklifts up to a loading capacity of 3.5tons. This award is also a confirmation of the outstanding advantages of this forklift series,” says Javier Contijoch, Director BYD Forklift Europe.

According to the current IFOY innovation report, the advantages of the Iron-Phosphate technology as a real innovation are of particular importance. The “use of Iron-Phosphate as the cathode material offers significant advantages. The battery has a higher output density, which has positive effects in particular for forklifts”. A “longer lifetime and improved operating safety” is confirmed. Longer working times in refrigerated warehouses are possible “due to a low temperature resistance down to minus 40°C.” Working at temperatures up to 60°C is also no problem. The environmental compatibility and cheap disposal of the battery are achieved by “not using cobalt” as well as a “lower lithium demand.”

The management of companies operating BYD forklift trucks can act now to reduce investment, always a top-level issue, according to BYD. Operating cost savings of up to 40% due to the latest maintenance-free Iron-Phosphate battery in combination with the user-friendly high-speed charging technology of BYD make the decision much easier, it says. “As fantastic as the savings effect sounds, they have been fully proven. No other applied technology in the materials handling/logistics processes has such a comparable enormous savings potential.”

BYD says that the difference between conventional, traditional lead-acid batteries and the original BYD Iron-Phosphate batteries “is simply too great, and the advantages are clear to see”. The exciting features of the original BYD Iron-Phosphate battery are its ultra-long lifetime and an exceptional warranty of 8 years or 10,000 operating hours. The forklift may continue to be used for many years after the warranty time has expired, since at least 65% of the battery capacity is still available. The charging system means there are no battery gases to escape and this saves costs for expensive special charging rooms.