Dealer plans to sell hydrogen trucks

-- Modern Materials Handling, 1/10/2007

Equipment dealership LiftOne announced this week that it signed a distribution agreement with hydrogen fuel cell maker Hydrogenics (Booth 2048). Hydrogenics executive John Werderman said he believes the deal makes LiftOne the first materials handling distributor to offer hydrogen-powered lift trucks.

Under the distribution agreement, LiftOne will market, sell and service HyPX Fuel Cell Power Packs to customers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

"We feel the time for this product is now," said LiftOne sales manager Troy Garrison at a press conference yesterday. "We are going to aggressively market this to our customers as an alternative to electric and gas," he said, adding that fuel cells offer a range of benefits—from lower operating temperatures to longer runtime—over traditional electric battery power.

With LiftOne, said Werderman, Hydrogenics fuel cells will be used in CAT lift trucks for the first time. The company is currently running pilot projects in North America with Hyster lift trucks and in Germany with Linde trucks.