Electrovaya releases forklift battery performance data

Photo: Electrovaya.

Electrovaya Inc., announced that its e-forklift batteries demonstrated negligible degradation after four years in a Fortune 100 company’s distribution centre.

The batteries had a degradation of approximately one per cent in heavy-duty usage at the distribution centre.

“For our e-forklift batteries operating in a 24/7 distribution center, the power consumption is between 0.8 and 1.5 charge cycles per day. A typical forklift running on a 35 kWh battery delivers power roughly equivalent to driving 150 miles on a typical electric car (with a 40KWh battery) per charge cycle,” said Dr. Niloofar Zarifi, Data Research Expert, Electrovaya. “Considering an average of one charge cycle per day and 320 working days in a year, that is the equivalent of driving 48,000 miles every year. In four years, that is equivalent to driving 192,000 miles (or 1,280 charge cycles) with practically no battery degradation, projecting a million-mile battery.”

To put these figures in perspective, the average warranty provided by an electric car manufacturer is approximately 100,000 miles (666 charge cycles) or eight years (whichever comes first) with 75 per cent capacity retention. Electrovaya offers a warranty of up to 9,000 charge cycles or 10 years (whichever comes first).

Battery life degradation is an issue with all batteries due to factors such as heavy loads, extreme conditions, overcharging, deep discharging, heavy usage, and less-than-optimal charging between shifts.