Like Toyota and Fiat, Nissan is one of the few automotive companies with a range of industrial vehicles that can also leverage advances in electrification. Its forklifts use lead acid batteries but lithium ion versions are being prepared for sale that cost more but remove the intensive use requirement for one battery set cooling down and one charging while one is in use.
Lithium forklifts can also be more compact. Indeed, Chinese companies now offer catalogue item lithium iron phosphate traction batteries for forklifts though not necessarily to Japanese safety standards. 48V 400-660Ah is a typical specification. All this is parallel with, not ahead of, the West. Linde of Germany has offered a lithium battery option for its forklifts and Jungheinrich of Germany has used lithium batteries in its forklifts for example.
Heavy industrial vehicles for outdoor use are moving to hybrid. In the West, Caterpillar now has diesel electric earthmovers in its range and in Japan; Mitsubishi has diesel electric hybrid lifters etc for outdoor use. The benefits include fuel economy and performance.
Source: Mitsubishi
Improved lithium - NiMH peaks
Kawazaki has worked with nickel metal hydride batteries in some of its vehicles and they will be in many Toyota hybrids for a while yet but the trend is to lithium across all models because of the inferior NiMH power storage and retention and the lanthanum rationing by China. Lithium batteries are now much safer.
Toshiba has developed its new secondary battery, the 'SCiB,' a battery that will not rupture or combust even when compressed. Mass production of SCiB commenced in March, 2008 and 2010 has seen many sales wins across different types of vehicle. The battery's success lies in its negative-electrode material: Toshiba uses its own independently-developed lithium titanium oxide (LTO) as the principal material. Toshiba raised electric bicycles, motorcycles, electric forklift trucks and automated guided vehicles as applications of the batteries, but it is working actively on developing high-performance types for hybrid and pure electric cars. Get the free IDTechEx white paper on who is winning in traction batteries and why. Car Traction Batteries - the New Gold Rush 2010-2020
For more read: Electric Vehicles in East Asia 2011-2021
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