California is rolling out new rules to move toward a zero-emission fleet of forklifts, against the backdrop of an industry that is already moving in that direction.
The California Air Resources Board last month passed a final rule designed to phase out the use of large spark-ignited (LSI) forklifts. An LSI engine is one in which a spark is utilized to ignite a fuel, which in a large portion of the forklift world means propane. Propane has long been the preferred fuel for indoor forklifts given that it is cleaner burning than diesel. Diesel engines are not considered LSI technology.
The forklift rule has parallels to California’s Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) and Advanced Clean Trucks rules, but there are differences as well.
“There is a significant penetration of zero-emission forklifts already,” David Chen, the manager of the Advanced Emissions Control Strategies section at CARB, said in an interview with FreightWaves. Chen and his team helped put together the forklift rule. In the workhorse classification of Class 4 forklifts, which operate with an internal combustion engine and run on tires, Chen said about half of those forklifts are already zero-emission.
“There’s been significant growth in probably the last five or six years,” Chen said. “We’re kind of building on what already has been done.”
Echoing the ACF, one key section of the forklift rule starts by saying that beginning Jan. 1, 2025, “a fleet operator shall not acquire or take possession of an LSI forklift at a location in California unless …,” with the rule then spelling out phase-out rules for existing forklifts.
The ACF rule bars any new registration with the state of ICE-powered drayage trucks after Jan. 1, 2024. The question of whether CARB required a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency has put that requirement on the sidelines for now, but given that California almost always gets its needed waivers from the EPA, it is expected that eventually that rule on drayage trucks will be enforced. (The ACF also has several rules on what it calls high-priority fleets, which covers private trucks. That also has a phase-out schedule to get older models off the road.)
Phase-out schedule begins in 2026
The phase-out rule on forklifts would kick in at the start of 2026 and require that a Class 4 LSI forklift be a model year 2025 or earlier, just one year before that portion of the rule commences. On Jan. 1, 2028, any LSI forklift with a model year of 2018 or earlier must be phased out. Three years later, it’s LSI model years 2019-2021, and extending out to a rule that says on Jan. 1, 2035, any Class 4 LSI forklift with a capacity of 12,000 pounds or less with a model year of 2024 or 2025 needs to be phased out.
There are different phase-out schedules for Class 4 LSI forklifts with capacity larger than 12,000 pounds and for Class 5 LSI forklifts.
As for manufacturers, they are prohibited from offering for sale after January 2026 any Class 4 forklift that is not a ZEV. That rule encompasses Class 5 forklifts starting in 2029.
There have been lawsuits and significant rancor around the ACF and its sister regulation, the Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which is a mandate on manufacturers. But Lori Berard, an air pollution specialist with the Mobile Source Control Division of CARB, said, “Personally, I thought it was really good to work with industry because we rely heavily on them for feedback.”
Chen also stressed that the rule is mostly a phase-out regime and that it doesn’t actually require a purchase of a ZEV forklift. While that may beg the question how a forklift’s capabilities could be accomplished without a forklift if older models are phased out, Chen said “some fleets have told us they can make operational changes so that we don’t need as many forklifts.” But he added that “we expect most fleets will probably just go with zero-emission forklifts.”
Berard said she believes that about half of new forklift sales in California already are for zero-emission equipment.
Trade association has issues with the rule
But the positive feelings aren’t universal. In a statement released to FreightWaves, the International Warehouse Logistics Association said it had “many concerns” about the rule.
“While we share the commitment to environmental stewardship, we believe the regulation in its current form imposes unnecessary logistical and financial burdens on warehouses.”
In its statement, the IWLA agreed with statements by others that the forklift market already is heading in the direction of ZEVs. It said that new ZEV forklifts are now about two-thirds of the supply.
But it added that “this one-size-fits-all rule does not take into account the size or scale of businesses, nor does it provide exemptions for small fleets. Consequently, it has the potential to significantly impact the goods-movement sector in California and beyond.”
And while CARB officials do not see the regulation as imposing a purchasing mandate, IWLA does not agree.
“The regulation forces all owners and operators to purchase zero-emission forklifts by 2026, regardless of the condition of their current ICE fleets,” it said in the statement. “This imposes a heavy economic burden on warehouses, especially those with newer ICE fleets, due to the significant lost utilization costs from prematurely retiring functional ICE forklifts and the high replacement costs for new zero-emission forklifts.”
But the organization also said it has been following the development of the rule and had not “actively lobbied against its development.” It added that “We believe that a more balanced approach would better serve the needs of the industry and contribute to environmental goals without imposing undue burdens on warehouses.”
Lots of interest already among Prologis customers
At Prologis (NYSE: PLD), the giant provider of warehouse services, Todd Lewis, vice president of Prologis Ventures, said the move toward ZEV forklifts is not occurring only because of mandates like that in California. “What I can tell you is that there has absolutely been growing interest across our customer base that’s spilling into forklifts” for use by Prologis tenants in the company’s warehouses.
But the issue is not just one of powering the machine, he said. “These forklifts are becoming more data-centric, using computer vision, using lidar [light detection and ranging], using sensor suites to help protect against injury or incident, and they have become a much more power-hungry engine,” Lewis said in an interview with FreightWaves.
“The newest and latest technologies that are emerging are predominantly built upon an EV chassis,” Lewis added.
He also said the timeline on introducing the rule went slower than he anticipated, adding that he would have expected it to emerge “a year or two sooner.”
Prologis is not in the business of mandating a certain type of technology to its tenants, Lewis said. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have views.
“I think where we play a role is by encouraging them to adopt technologies and practices that will give them longevity,” Lewis said. “So in order for them to do that, they have to be adopting on this curve that keeps them competitive with the likes of the biggest players who are most certainly adopting ZEVs because they’re cleaner vehicles. And they’re usually more user-friendly.”
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