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Electric Forklift Growth Trend and Prospect Analysis

Author : Hitop

Update time : 2020-05-03 16:22:00

"Forklift" belongs to the category of industrial handling vehicles, and refers to various wheeled handling vehicles for loading, unloading, stacking, and short-distance transportation of palletized goods. The International Organization for Standardization ISO/TC110 called Industrial Vehicle. Electric forklift refers to industrial forklift driven by electricity (lead-acid, lithium battery and fuel). Forklift market size exceeded USD 50 billion in 2019 and is set to grow at around 10.5% CAGR between 2020 and 2026. The global industry shipments are projected to exceed 3 million units by 2026. The market growth is due to the increasing deployment of these equipment for enhancing safety & security of workers while performing tasks of lifting and transporting heavy loads.

Since 2017, the global industrial vehicle industry has shown the following characteristics:
• 2017 was the second high-growth year except 2010 after the financial crisis;
• The proportion of Chinese manufacturing in the world has further increased, approaching 40% (including foreign-funded enterprises in China);
• Electric, warehousing, new energy, and intelligent forklifts have received extensive attention, and the market opportunity period has arrived;
• The industry concentration has been further improved, leading companies have obvious advantages in key competitiveness such as technology, cost, channels, and services;
• Increased labor and raw material costs, further intensified market competition, and a decline in profit levels;
• Foreign brands continue to carry out acquisitions, shareholdings, and resource integration in the industry, and strive to increase market share in economic products.
In general, the global forklift market has shown an upward trend in the past 10 years. World industrial vehicle statistics show that the total sales volume of the global forklift market in 2019 reached 1,493,271 units, an increase of 0.25% compared with 14,89523 units in 2018.

Although my country's forklift industry started late, after years of development, it has become the world's largest forklift production country and consumer market. In 2019, China's total sales volume of forklifts (sales volume in the domestic market + export volume) maintained a steady and slightly increasing situation, with annual sales of forklifts exceeding 600,000 units. The total sales volume of the whole industry was 608,341 units, an increase of 1.87% compared with 597,152 units in the whole year of 2018.

In 2019, China's industrial vehicle industry has entered a period of adjustment, and the trend of forklift electrification is further highlighted. Some OEMs and supporting parts companies that have been deployed in advance have achieved continuous development. At the same time, more and more companies have begun to enter the field of electric forklifts, and have made continuous breakthroughs and diversified innovations around the core technology and products of electric forklifts, which has promoted the further improvement of the level of domestic electric forklifts. In recent years, the breakthroughs made by electric vehicles (including electric vehicles) in power, transmission, control, safety and other technologies (such as mechatronics integration technology) have also provided forklift OEMs with research and development of electric forklift products and improving the performance of electric forklifts. Favorable external conditions.

With the continuous maturity of technology, the improvement of government environmental requirements and the popularization of environmental protection concepts, the structure of the industry continues to change, the market share of electric forklifts continues to increase and dominate the market, while the traditional internal combustion forklift market is relatively shrinking.

Customization is a trend in the development of electric forklifts. Customization refers to providing product functions suitable for customers according to the needs of customers or working environment. For example, according to the customer's working conditions, we need to customize batteries with different capacities, fork specifications, and even vehicle models. HITOP forklift is such a company that takes "industry customization" as a strategic direction. The company has 15 years of experience in the research and development and manufacturing of electric forklifts. At the same time, it has many years of non-standard design, industry custom design precipitation, focusing on the use of different industries Demand, in-depth research and development, to provide the most suitable industry customized product services.

Interact Analysis recently made a prediction for the global forklift market under the influence of COVID-19. In the long run, the growth of the forklift market continues to improve, taking into account measures such as manufacturing reflow and the improvement of production automation that manufacturers may take to avoid the next interruption of the supply chain. We predict that the growth rate of global forklift shipments will rapidly rebound to 8.2% in 2021, higher than the previous forecast of 6.5%. After 2023, the market growth rate will return to the level predicted before the outbreak.

In the current forklift market, electric forklifts and diesel forklifts account for about 6:4. Electric forklifts equipped with lead-acid batteries have been available for many years and currently account for about 80% of the entire electric forklift market. In the latest report released by Interact Analysis: “Our prediction model believes that in the next ten years, the penetration rate of electric forklifts will increase rapidly globally, and lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells will also accelerate the impact on lead-acid batteries. replace."

In recent years, the global forklift market has developed rapidly. Although the growth rate of shipments in 2019 was negative for the first time (-0.7%), the main reason is the global economic downturn and the high base in 2018. The 2020 opening year was affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, and the growth rate is not optimistic. We predict that the market will recover from 2021 and show strong growth, with the second- and third-class forklifts gaining the largest market share. In 2028, we predict that global forklift shipments will reach nearly 2.4 million units, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.5%.

What is the driving force for the continued growth of the overall forklift market?

After the end of COVID-19, the recovery of the manufacturing industry is slower than that of the logistics industry. The eruption of e-commerce demand has promoted the automation of warehousing and logistics centers, and the growth of logistics demand has become the main reason for the high demand for forklifts worldwide. Our forecast believes that the epidemic will change people's consumption habits forever, and more and more people will choose online shopping, so after 2020, the demand for forklifts will accelerate, and in 2020, the storage of the second and third types of forklifts will be more affected. Large, but the recovery speed is also fast, and the overall trend of electrification will not be affected. Our model shows that the rate at which lithium-ion batteries replace lead-acid batteries will not slow down. Labor shortage and accelerated application of automation are also driving forces for the development of the forklift market.

The reason we predict that diesel forklifts will be replaced by electric forklifts is because the large-scale logistics warehouses that have proliferated in recent years are all indoor application scenarios, and the requirements for zero noise and low emissions are higher. In addition, in the indoor environment, the working distance of the forklift is shorter, and the battery mileage is not so strict, which greatly reduces the battery cost. According to our warehousing automation research, it has become a trend for more micro-delivery centers close to users to replace large logistics centers in the suburbs-that is, by building micro-warehouses in core urban areas, they can be delivered on the same day or within a specified time period. These warehouses are close to residential houses, so the requirements for noise and emissions control are higher. Therefore, the electric forklift market will be further developed.

All along, lead-acid batteries are cost-effective and dominate the electric forklift market. However, although the lead-acid battery technology is mature and the supply is stable, our forecast believes that due to the rapid development of lithium-ion battery technology and the cost reduction caused by the increase in production scale, lithium-ion batteries will become the first choice for electric forklifts.

By 2028, electric forklifts will account for 70% of global forklift shipments, most of which are lithium-ion battery forklifts. Among them, the third type of forklifts are expected to account for 43% of total shipments, of which more than 75% will be equipped with lithium-ion batteries.

We are optimistic about the further penetration of lithium-ion batteries in the forklift market, but we do not rule out more challenges. The position of lead-acid batteries in the market cannot be ignored. Only lithium-ion battery forklifts can demonstrate cost advantages in a shorter period of time than lead-acid battery forklifts. Lithium-ion battery technology has large energy density, long life cycle, and high efficiency. The advantages of low maintenance cost and short charging time can offset the early high cost investment. At the same time, battery developers need to strive to increase the advantages of lithium-ion batteries in the future, highlighting this relatively emerging battery technology.

Due to the advantages of no pollution and low noise, electric forklifts have huge market space in industries such as warehousing, wholesale and retail, food and medicine; on the other hand, with the continuous development of the economy, people’s environmental awareness is becoming stronger and stronger. The government The promotion of energy conservation and emission reduction is also increasing. Under the guidance of the increasing demand in the downstream market and government industrial policies, the consumption structure of the forklift market will gradually adjust, and the proportion of electric forklifts in the forklift market will gradually increase, which will bring huge development space for the electric forklift market. .

What are the factors for choosing an electric forklift?

1. The price problem
Customers will care about how much is an electric forklift? The price is determined by different models, different load tonnage, different battery capacity and other core configuration differences, so you should choose the right one according to your own operation requirements Electric forklift.
2. Operation requirements
The operating requirements of electric forklift trucks include general requirements such as pallet or cargo specifications, promotion height, working channel width, gradeability, etc. At the same time, it also needs to consider the operating efficiency (different models have different efficiency), operating habits (such as getting used to sitting or standing) And other requirements.
3. Operating environment
When choosing the model and configuration, if the goods to be handled or the environment of the warehouse have environmental protection requirements such as noise or exhaust emissions, they should be considered in the purchase. For example, when used in a low-temperature refrigerator, a cold-storage forklift should be selected In an explosion-proof environment with high requirements on the circuit, you must choose an explosion-proof electric forklift.
4. Working hours
Some unqualified businesses will randomly indicate how many hours can be used in the description, but it does not necessarily mean continuous working hours, which is easy to confuse audiovisual. Must pay attention to the drive mode of electric forklifts (AC motor drive priority, HITOP CPD08 CPD10F CPD16F CPD20E is the first to adopt technologically advanced permanent magnet synchronous motor control, more powerful and more energy-saving), battery brand and capacity, choose your own electric Forklifts can achieve maximum efficiency.
5. Security issues
This is also the most important issue to consider for forklifts.
There are two main points:
(1) To load the cargo, in order to avoid damage to the loaded cargo, the stability of the operation of the electric handling forklift is high. Lest it outweighs the loss. According to the load curve, it is necessary to buy a forklift with a suitable load.
(2) Operator safety issues, human operation is a potential safety hazard, no matter what, personal safety will always be the first, so the quality of electric forklifts can not be sloppy.

HITOP electric forklift uses two unique safety technologies:
• Intelligent deceleration turning design, improve the stability of the vehicle during traveling, to avoid rolling and tipping cargo.
• Automatic adaptation of deceleration ramp feature is available in our electric forklift trucks. It assists in prevention of over voltage fault, in case the user has set the deceleration ramp value very low for the high load inertia applications, by automatically adapting the deceleration ramp.

In short, when purchasing, it is necessary to fully consider their own needs, the actual working environment of the work site and the required cargo to be carried.

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Electric Forklift Growth Trend and Prospect Analysis