The lead-acid forklift battery dictated warehouse layout for forty years: a ventilated room, a change-out bay, a hoist, and a spare battery per truck per shift. Pellon's LF18 is the latest machine built on the assumption that none of that exists.
Its 24-kilowatt-hour lithium iron phosphate pack charges to 80% in 38 minutes and tolerates partial charging without the capacity penalty that made opportunity charging a bad idea on lead-acid. In practice that means a truck tops up during a coffee break and a lunch break and never leaves the floor.
Charger placement is the whole project
Operators who put chargers in the old battery room reported the worst results, because drivers will not walk. The warehouses getting three-shift operation out of two trucks mounted chargers at the dock ends and beside the break room, where the truck stops anyway.
Pellon quotes 4,000 cycles to 80% capacity and offers a five-year pack warranty. The machine lists roughly 18% above the equivalent lead-acid truck once the spare battery and charger are stripped out of the comparison.