Hyster honoured for growing heavy-duty electric portfolio

Hyster Company has been awarded a 2021 Green Supply Chain Award from the Supply & Demand Chain Executive. The company won recognition for a growing range of electric options available for a more expansive set of industries and applications, including those reliant on high-capacity lift trucks traditionally powered by internal combustion engines.

“As emissions regulations become more stringent and the market’s desire for electric equipment intensifies, we’ve invested in strategies and products to take a leading role in defining this electrification trend,” said Martin Boyd, vice president of product planning and solutions at the Hyster Company. “Our collective goal is to provide a customer experience that enables businesses to make a motive power choice based purely on their needs – without any lingering doubts about equipment performance or support.”

The Green Supply Chain Award recognised Hyster for its electrification innovations for higher-capacity equipment such as the industry’s first sit-down counterbalanced lift truck with factory-integrated lithium-ion power in the 15,500- to 19,000lb range, as well as lithium-ion-powered models with capacities from 23,000- to 36,000lb. Each offers emission-free operation and charging and provides an electric option with performance comparable to traditional diesel-powered equipment.

Hyster electrification efforts also extend to even heavier-duty equipment such as reachstackers and container handlers. The company received a grant from the California Air Resources Board to develop a hydrogen fuel cell-powered container handler intended to support applications with higher duty cycles and power consumption. In these applications where the requirements to power a fleet of electric high-capacity trucks are likely to exceed power capabilities of the grid, hydrogen may provide ports with readily available energy without a requirement for a high capacity electric charging infrastructure. Hyster also announced the development of a zero-emission reachstacker featuring a hydrogen fuel cell for the Port of Valencia, as part of the European Horizon 2020 programme and H2Ports project.

The SDCE Green Supply Chain Awards recognise companies making sustainability a core part of their supply chain strategy, as well as those working to achieve measurable goals within their operations.