BYD, the new entrant to the European materials handling market which is making waves with its maintenance-free BYD Iron-Phosphate Battery technology, declared that it was honoured that its new 1.8 tonne counterbalance model has reached the final round of the International Forklift Truck of the Year Award 2016.
Its new model is one of only three selected in the counterbalance section. Other makers chosen are Crown and Toyota.
The jury has nominated a total of three trucks in the “Counterbalance Truck” category, and a truck made in China has made it into the final round for the first time in the history of IFOY. The 80 Volt, 3-wheeled ECB18C electric forklift from BYD with a load capacity of 1.8 tons was launched in December 2015 and is powered by a long life maintenance-free Iron-Phosphate battery (8 years, 10,000 hours warranty) that accepts intermediate charging and it can be fully charged in just one hour.
“We are both honoured and delighted to have been selected”, says Javier Contijoch, BYD Europe’s Forklift Director. “We know the industry has fully understood that the BYD forklifts dramatically reduce operating costs and now, our dealer network in Germany and Benelux, and our entire team look forward to seeing the full IFOY results at CeMAT in a few months. By then we will have launched in new markets such as the UK, Switzerland, Austria and Portugal”.