>been making electric vehicles since forever
>Made to be abused, and neglected by some of the dumbest motherfrickers on the planet and keep working in some of the worst temperature conditions known to man.
So DA why hasn't any of the electric forklift manufacturers tried to get in on the EV fad?
I wouldn't be surprised if manufacturers sourced motors from whoever the forklift makers get their motors from, but unfortunately for forklift companies, their tech is too old school and analog to be competitive. A lot of pedals, switches, levers are either direct hydraulic components or basic, non-CANBUS electric wiring, and the batteries are lead acid in the vast majority of models.
Some of the newer lifts I've driven have decent diagnostic systems, and have integrated inventory control computers on board, so I don't think it would take much to adapt to automotive use if were talking infotainment instead of inventory control. I don't think its that much of stretch. As far as the batteries yes lead acid is different tech but the charging still has to be managed and better yet most of these systems use a battery swap system that basically has not been utilized in EV automotive systems.
The only major hurdles I see would be adapting to safety regs. I'm also curious as to why no-ones attempted to adapt hydraulic motor transmission systems to on road applications too.
But imagine a barebones EV that doesn't need half the convoluted bullshit that Tesla says it needs to fricking operate there, and for an affordable price point?
>doesn't need half the convoluted bullshit that Tesla says it needs to fricking operate
Tesla includes their built-in GNU/Linux PC because its simpler than the half dozen independent computer systems that legacy automakers use, and costs less. Most companies are copying Tesla because of that fact.
> imagine a barebones EV
>for an affordable price point?
The most expensive thing right now is the big battery packs that cars need to have an acceptable amount of range. Put in an $8000 battery pack that has 310kg of battery cells and another 170kg of packaging, and the more weight you add, the more energy it will take to move the vehicle, and the more stored energy you need.
The way to make a more affordable BEV is to make them lighter weight and more efficient. It also helps if you try to optimize around doing one thing well, instead of trying to do everything with one vehicle.
Its not available in the US, but the Citroen Ami is a very simple, very affordable $6000 BEV. It does it by being very focused on doing one thing well and covering 80%+ of normal use.
Dude, lead-acid fricking SUCKS DONKEY BALLS for the purposes of a car. It's great for a forklift, easy to maintain, hard to ruin, cheap to replace (relatively) if it is ruined. Works when it's cold. But in a car? Having to monitor/top up water levels, and the lack of charge? Hard no. Even nickel based battery cars were a failure.
>tfw no EV with hydraulic brakes and steering and all the fun clunkiness of a forklift
Probably because they ran the numbers and realized the entire industry is fraudulent and not profitable
There was a company a few years ago in the UK trying to sell an FCEV using fuel cells from a forklift.
Its just the basic design philosophy that works for a forklift that needs to get around in a controlled environment and lift really heavy things, simplify and add weight, doesn't work that well on the road where you want to simplify and add lightness to achieve greater range.
Do you want that much %-wise of your vehicle taken up by lead-acid batteries? Do you want to charge your car 12 hours, then let it set another 4? Do you want to replace your batteries after about 100 charges?
Most of the powered moving equipment i deal with charges in about an hour and goes thru lead acid batteries about every 3 years because of 3 harsh working shifts and not using distilled water for topping up.
I would imagine with the less demanding automotive use they would hold up better.
Yeah the main forklift went through over a gallon per week and we filled them all with tap water. For a lead acid electric car you would have to have to pump ac condensation into the battery cause aind nobody topping that off
>over a gallon per week
Ours uses over a gallon a day. The battery is more of a resistor at this point and gets hot as frick when you recharge it or run it hard. You can just smell the sulphur cooking. Pretty sure it's going to burn down the warehouse one day but they don't want to spend the $10k to replace it. The other battery was leaving a trail of battery acid before they finally replaced it.
Op, I hate to break it to you, but you are a half fledged moron.
That's an LPG lift anon, and Toyota forklifts are an independent division of the Toyota Industries which is itself and independent corporation under Toyota Group.
>Gotta get space for new production lines and warehousing - or shut down some of the forklift lines
>Gotta get new assembly machines and tooling
>Gotta make business deals with all sorts of 3rd party suppliers who already have long-standing business with other car companies
>Gotta go through the maddeningly-long process of getting the vehicle durability tested, crash tested, DOT / EPA validated, etc
>Gotta set up dealership franchising or some sort of direct sale program with shipping and financing
>Gotta get a legal team on your side that knows the auto business
>Gotta hire engineers, line workers, quality inspectors, technical writers, etc
...all for other car companies to destroy you, bringing your forklift company with it.
Regulations to build a consumer car and to build a forklift are wildly different. Fully electric forklifts are around however I've always found propane ones to be more common.
>>Made to be abused, and neglected by some of the dumbest motherfrickers on the planet
I'm not dumb, OP
Some of the forklift drivers at my old warehouse were really dumb. In fact id say that morons operate most of the dangerous equipment
I've worked in warehousing for most of my adult life, and driven Forklifts for a good part of that time. Forklift drivers are morons, not much better than your average car driver, but worse in that they understand hitting shit at a low speed probably won't damage the lift in any meaningful way but frick what ever you were carrying or the truck you were on.
Forklifts are pretty slow on hills. I had to hit the ramp at full speed to make it up with a pallet. They get stuck easy too. Very harsh and i dont know how many miles we ran in a day but probably less than 25. When we were operating at full speed, we could run the battery down really fast.
Many of the motors used in forklifts arent much above 20hp. All of the grunt work is done by hydraulics.
Are you asking EV owners not to be moronic and actually know how to operate a vehicle? That's a tall fricking order there lad weew
Crown makes so much equipment that would easily handle the average electric automotive user im surprised they never got in on ev conversions.
Not profitable for consumer cars because the costs needs to be much lower, comfort needs to be much higher, range needs to be much higher, safety needs to be much higher, mass production needs to happen at a much higher scale, and so on.
Pretty easy to make something that weighs 9000lbs and goes 5mph
Only semi related, but I'm really surprised that caterpillar hasn't made an "industrial" pickup truck, seeing as they make just about every other imaginable thing with wheels.
They made dump trucks and shit but they were just rebranded Peterbilt's or some shit. They were a pretty big failure. Sterling got pretty close to that but they were also a pretty big failure.
Hyster was my favorite manufacturer of fork lifts. Even Toyota and Mitsubishi didn't feel as right as them.