BYD rolls out electric forklifts for Singapore market
Firm says no maintenance needed for batteries; it's also reaching out to LTA to put its electric buses on roads here
Singapore
CHINESE car and rechargeable batteries manufacturer BYD, which counts Warren Buffet as a shareholder, launched its electric forklifts for the Singapore market on Thursday.
The move marks a new phase for the Shenzhen manufacturer in its four years in Singapore, as it continues to actively pursue opportunities to have more of its electric cars and buses plying Singapore's roads.
"We see a gap in the electric forklift market here and we hope to plug that gap," said Nancy Mao, BYD's general manager for Singapore in an interview, conducted in Mandarin, with The Business Times.
"Ultimately, we aim to provide urban solutions with our electric vehicles, and electric forklifts are part of these solutions."
The forklifts are touted as the first three models in Singapore that run on lithium-ion iron-phosphate batteries. They have already been launched over the past two years in China, Australia, Japan and Europe.
BYD said their batteries can operate at -40 to 60 degrees Celsius. This is good for warehouses with low temperatures, including refrigerated and chilled environments for food or pharmaceutical products, said Ms Mao.
She added that another plus point is that the batteries need no maintenance. Coupled with its low energy consumption and requirements, this can come up to about S$14,116 in savings over three years, compared to other electric forklifts from other brands.
The forklifts are the company's latest efforts at establishing its presence here in Singapore.
BYD - which is an acronym for "build your dreams" - attracted much interest when Mr Buffett took a 10 per cent stake in 2008, but its performance has been disappointing, with data from Bloomberg stating that BYD sold just 2,691 units in 2013, about 12 per cent of Tesla's output that year. Tesla Motors is a US automotive and energy storage company that has become a hot stock on Nasdaq.
But policy changes recently in China together with subsidies have helped ramp up demand for electric vehicles. BYD controls about 30 per cent of the market, said Ms Mao.
With a solid performance in its domestic market, BYD is hoping to strengthen its position in Singapore by showing the Republic what its vehicles have achieved in China and elsewhere.
BYD started here in 2011 when SMRT International Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of public transport operator SMRT Corp, announced an MOU with BYD to explore the use of electric vehicles in its bus and taxi fleets.
It also tried to introduce the all-electric crossover BYD e6 to taxi companies here.
BYD also recently entered into a collaboration with Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) to set up a joint laboratory to research autonomous vehicle and fleet management technologies. Ms Mao said the agreement lasts for six years, and it has been in operation for a year.
She conceded that the progress has been slow, and BYD has yet to establish itself as a well-known brand name here.
"Thus, with the introduction of our forklifts, we hope to gradually have more people get acquainted with our brand."
Already, BYD is laying the groundwork for a different kind of expansion in Singapore.
As authorities decided to transit Singapore's public transport system to one under which the government will own operating assets such as trains and buses, and lease them to operators, Ms Mao said that BYD had to attempt to speak with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) again to introduce its electric buses here. The company recently reached out to LTA, but nothing concrete has been achieved yet.
In the meantime, BYD has been submitting test reports on its vehicles' safety and electromagnetic compatibility records to authorities.
These buses have already been ferrying passengers in other cities, including Shenzhen, Kyoto and Paris.
BYD also recently scored a massive order of 800 heavy duty buses from the Washington State Department of Transportation in the US.
"Singapore is the perfect place for us to provide urban solutions," said Ms Mao. "And we hope that in doing so, the rest of South-east Asia can learn from Singapore and follow suit."
