Cover Story Evolving power

the freezer the entire time, Schneider said. Now with the learning curve in place, Schneider said conversations with customers are often about standardization, lead times and quality metrics.

“It’s the beginning of a mature phase of technology and adoption. Orders are bigger. People are switching entire fleets rather than small trials,” she said. Schneider cited a recent white paper by CALSTART showing lithium-ion overtaking lead acid in new vehicle sales and forklift sales in 2026. “It shows the adoption of lithium-ion year-overyear growth at about 30 percent,” Schneider said.

Battery options continue to grow and develop to meet industry needs in material handling

As material handling companies power up to meet the needs of customers, equipment like batteries and chargers are often a top calculation. Some in the lithium-ion battery industry say knowledge of the technology has grown rapidly.

“We’ve gotten to an inflection point where understanding and awareness of lithium-ion batteries is high enough that the discussion is no longer about value proposition. Generally, people understand the value,” said Robin Schneider, director of marketing at Green Cubes Technology.

The company “develops and manufactures a complete portfolio of modern electrification power solutions, including the market-leading Lithium SAFEFlexbattery,” according to the company website. Green Cubes’ solutions “allow industrial customers to transition away from fossil fuels and legacy power sources such as lead-acid and internal combustion engines,” the site said.

Previously, lithium ion was used more in niche, early adopter applications like cold storage facilities where a Li-ion powered battery would have strong capabilities of providing power while staying in

Mining for lithium

Asked about the practices of mining for lithium ion, Schneider said the subject does come up frequently as a concern and added that there will be supply chain constraints as the industry grows. “Eventually, supply will be developed to meet the demand. There will be correction and balance over time,” Schneider said.

There is a key distinction between the more wellestablished chemistry of nickel magnesium (NMC) cobalt and the lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) chemistry used in lift truck batteries, according to Schneider. The NMC combination is used in laptops, cell phones and the majority of electric vehicles, she said.

Lithium is fairly abundant, however the NMC mining process is “very environmentally unfriendly,” said Schneider, who said most of the supply mines are based in Africa and are owned by China. “They’re also toxic,” she added.

The LFP combination uses iron, which Schneider said is “readily abundant in most of the world.” “There’s a drive for the entire battery industry to go forward with the LFP chemistry,” she said, noting Green Cubes batteries employ this chemistry.