Burning issues

The future of IC engine forklifts

The latest round of new EU emission standards has again focused attention on the challenges facing IC engine lift truck manufacturers and users. With the help of specialists from Cat® Lift Trucks, Mark Nicholson looks at current trends and discusses the way forward for this important market segment.

Sales trends

Between 2001 and 2018, total counterbalance forklift sales in Europe have flipped from 60:40 in favour of IC engine to a 60:40 advantage for electric. However, variations in these percentages between countries suggest major cultural differences in preferred power sources.

At one extreme, electric makes up 82% of counterbalance sales in Italy – up from 73% in 2001. At the other, IC engine forklifts still dominate in the UK – where electric’s share has only moved from 32% to 33% over the same period. Further comparisons are shown in Figure 1. Despite the overall trend toward electric, there is clearly a strong and continuing demand for IC engine products.

Figures comparing diesel and LPG forklift shares within the IC engine segment are not so easy to obtain. However, it is well known that European customers have always leaned more toward diesel, while Americans have preferred LPG. With its global development and manufacturing base, Cat Lift Trucks is equally well equipped to develop and improve technologies using both of those power sources, as well as electric.

“As the pressure to reduce emissions increases, and as electric trucks become more attractive for other reasons, both LPG and diesel customers are switching,” says General Manager, Equipment, Willem de Jong. “Some diesel users may swap to LPG, but most are likely to change directly to electric. The effort of dealing with LPG bottle swapping, storage and refuelling, together with the health and safety regulations surrounding those activities, will be unappealing or impractical to many. It may also seem an unnecessary intermediate step to those who feel that a move to electric will ultimately be inevitable.”

Challenges and responses

“Electric trucks are gaining market share largely because of their advantage on emissions,” IC Engine Product Manager Carmen van Boeckel comments. “In addition, today’s electrics are becoming more powerful, durable and weather-resistant than their predecessors, so they can handle some outdoor roles which previously required IC trucks. They also offer sophisticated electronically controlled features which create an excellent user experience.

“But the IC engine lift truck is here to stay, and we can expect to see continuing technological development in this area. The new Stage V EU emission standards, along with increasing pressure to reduce carbon footprint, are driving further improvements in efficient, clean-burning engine technology. We also expect to see technologies from our electric trucks applied to IC products, including hybridised power systems and additional driver aids.”

For LPG engines, the changes needed to comply with Stage V are relatively small and will result in little if any cost increase. For diesel engines it is much harder, and customers will eventually see hundreds or even thousands of Euros added to truck prices, depending on the model.

Willem de Jong adds: “In this new era, diesel forklifts will be more productive than ever, but customers will have to accept that the traditional simple diesel engine has become a thing of the past. Those older, mechanically controlled engines, built on many years of evolution, were well understood, very predictable in their applications and usually extremely reliable.

“The latest Stage V engines are much more sophisticated and fully electronically controlled. They have been subjected to rigorous testing programmes, of course, but they have yet to prove themselves to users in the marketplace. It will be an interesting time for forklift mechanics too, as they are used to maintaining engines without the use of a laptop.”

There will probably be a greater demand than in the past for refurbishment of the existing population of older trucks to give them a second or third life. Although simple diesel engines will be phased out and will never come back, they may take many years to disappear.

Continuing IC advantages

Despite the additional cost of complying with Stage V, particularly for diesel forklifts, IC engine trucks will still be substantially cheaper to buy than electric. Rugged IC engine lift trucks will be difficult to replace with electric lift trucks in tough outdoor applications, especially where loads are heaviest.

Both LPG and diesel offer virtually non-stop productivity, as they can be refuelled quickly – in contrast to the time-consuming battery changes and recharging of electric trucks. There is also interest in the ability of LPG trucks to do occasional indoor as well as outdoor work, if local rules permit.

Diesel forklifts continue to score highest on torque – for more powerful performance – and on operating economy. They are also the easiest to supply with fuel in remote locations with no mains electricity. They may even have a lower carbon footprint than an electric truck, if the energy used to charge the electric’s battery has been generated by burning fossil fuels.

“For many applications, in many areas, switching from IC engine to electric simply isn’t feasible – and isn’t likely to be a realistic possibility any time soon,” Carmen van Boeckel concludes. “Consider, for example, the huge practical difficulties involved in powering a large electric container handler. Or in running an electric fleet in a region which doesn’t have the necessary electrical supply infrastructure. We can safely say that diesel and LPG still have much to contribute to the world’s energy mix and to the materials handling industry.”