All types of traditionally gas-powered vehicles and machines are turning electric — from cars to lawnmowers to tractors. Adding one more to the list: The Port of San Diego just deployed the first commercially available, large-capacity electric forklift made in the United States.
The Wiggins Yard eBull battery electric forklift is capable of lifting up to 55,000 pounds — all without burning a drop of gasoline. The machine has over 100 kilowatt-hours of onboard energy storage and can work for 8-16 hours at a time, depending on whether Level 2 charging or DC fast charging is installed at the port.
"SSA Marine is proud to partner with the Port of San Diego to demonstrate the potential of zero-emissions equipment in a marine terminal environment and to further understand what the long-term benefits could look like," Bill Fitz, senior vice president of SSA Marine's conventional division, said, per Electrek.
Some of the money for the forklift was supplied by California's Clean Off-Road Equipment (CORE) voucher program, one of several California programs intended to wean the state off dirty, polluting energy sources like gas and oil to supply citizens with healthier air quality and contribute less to the overheating of our planet.
Other steps the state has taken recently have included cutting subsidies for new buildings that rely on natural gas (which is mostly methane) instead of on electrification, banning new registrations of diesel-powered trucks, and suing major oil companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP for decades of polluting and deceiving the public about it.
The electric forklift is just the beginning for the Port of San Diego. Five other pieces of zero-pollution construction equipment are expected to be deployed at the port over the next 12 to 18 months.
While there is no specific information on the pollution caused by gas-powered forklifts, heavy-duty diesel-powered vehicles like trucks and tractor trailers generate a quarter of all planet-overheating pollution from the transportation sector, despite accounting for a small portion of the vehicles on the road.
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