At present, China's forklift industry has not yet achieved fully differentiated competition, and enterprises rely more on price competition to strive for market share, resulting in a low level of gross profit margin. With high durability, reliability and applicability, domestic electric forklifts will sell 283000 units in 2020, accounting for 45.8% of the total forklift sales. In the first half of 2021, 211000 units will be sold, accounting for 49.8% of the total forklift sales. The sales proportion will gradually increase. In the future, with the increasing attention to environmental protection and other multiple factors, electric forklifts will gradually squeeze the market share of internal combustion forklifts.
The proportion of electric forklift sales has gradually increased
With the upgrading of China's consumption and the rapid development of e-commerce industry, consumers' requirements for logistics speed have gradually increased. In order to meet the market demand, Jingdong, Shentong, Shunfeng and other leading enterprises in the express industry have increased their investment in sorting robots, AGVs and other equipment. Among them, AGV logistics sorting system liberates logistics workers from monotonous and repetitive high-intensity work, greatly improves the efficiency and accuracy of logistics sorting, and gradually improves the sales volume. In addition, with the continuous promotion of supply side structural reform, the sales structure of forklift industry has been optimized, and the sales proportion of electric forklift has gradually increased. By 2020, the sales volume of domestic electric forklifts will be 283000 units, accounting for 45.8%. In the first half of 2021, 211000 units will be sold, accounting for 49.8%. Electric forklifts will gradually squeeze the market share of internal combustion forklifts.
Compared with developed countries, the proportion of electric forklifts in China still has room to rise
In the first half of 2021, the sales volume of domestic electric forklifts was 211000, accounting for 49.8%, with a year-on-year increase of 100.8%. It has increased from 23.5% in 2012 to 49.8% in the first half of 2021, but there is still much room for development compared with 65% - 75% in European and American countries, and the proportion of electrification will continue to rise in the future.
Indoor operation of electric forklift has more environmental protection advantages
Since most of the application scenarios of forklifts are mainly transportation in the warehouse, the tail gas discharged during the operation of internal combustion forklifts causes great pollution in the closed storage environment. Electric forklift has the advantage of reducing exhaust pollution and noise pollution while completing the same workload, providing a more comfortable working environment.
Electric forklift has more cost advantages
In terms of energy cost, the consumption cost of electric energy is lower than that of diesel or liquefied petroleum gas. The use of electric forklift can reduce the energy cost. At the same time, the maintenance cost of electric forklift is relatively low. The longest maintenance cycle of internal combustion forklift is 500h, while many maintenance cycles of electric forklift can reach more than 1000h. The maintenance of electric forklift mainly focuses on inspection and cleaning. Replace the hydraulic oil, gear oil and hydraulic oil filter every 2000h or 3000h. In addition to lubrication, the engine oil and oil filter of internal combustion forklift shall be changed every 500h at most, and the hydraulic oil, engine oil, transmission oil and oil filter shall be changed every 1000h. Relatively speaking, the maintenance cost of electric forklift is lower.
Lithium batteries will accelerate the replacement of lead-acid batteries
Before the power lithium battery was not widely used, lead-acid battery dominated the field of electric forklift with low cost. With the gradual expansion of lithium battery production scale, the production cost of lithium battery also gradually decreases. Although the cost is still higher than that of lead-acid battery, it has become a major development trend of electric forklift due to its long service life and high energy density. In the future, with the further decline of lithium battery cost, the replacement of lithium battery to lead-acid battery will be accelerated, and the production cost of electric forklift will also be further reduced.
Based on the above factors, we believe that the electric forklift will gradually replace the internal combustion forklift for three main reasons: first, the main working environment of the forklift is indoor, which is more friendly than the internal combustion forklift; Second, in view of the experience of European and American countries, China's electric forklift still has great room for progress; Third, electric forklift has more cost advantages than internal combustion forklift. At the same time, with the continuous decline of lithium battery cost, the advantages of electric forklift will be more prominent.
