Hybridisation and Battery Sizing Study for a Reach stacker

Background

A reach stacker platform manufacturer sought to evaluate multiple power system options to reduce both operating and initial costs. Fleet customers are increasingly pressuring OEMs to lower total cost of ownership (TCO), yet many remain unconvinced that full electrification is practical where grid charging infrastructure is unavailable.

Project Objective

To identify the lowest-TCO power system for an aerial work platform application by comparing conventional, hybrid, and battery-electric options. The study evaluated hybrid configurations both with and without plug-in charging capability to assess the impact on cost and operational flexibility.

Approach

All available power source and delivery architectures were modeled against three representative duty cycles defined for the aerial work platform. ePOP engineers analyzed a range of technologies—including internal combustion, hybrid, and electric systems—sourced from the ePOP technology library.

Simulation and evaluation were structured in three main stages:

Cycle Definition: Representative power and energy demand cycles were generated from operational data to define baseline system loads.

System Configuration: Candidate hybrid and electric powertrains were modeled, incorporating battery capacity variations and generator sizing to determine optimal system balance.

Performance and TCO Analysis: Each configuration was assessed for life-cycle cost, fuel consumption, and system mass to identify the lowest-TCO option under realistic duty cycles.

Outcome

The results showed that even without access to grid charging, a hybrid power system achieved the lowest total cost of ownership, reducing TCO by 8.8 % over eight years compared with diesel-only operation.
If grid charging capability were added, TCO savings increased to 17 %, driven by reduced fuel usage and lower energy costs.

The analysis confirmed that hybridisation offers a clear cost and performance advantage for off-highway equipment where full electrification remains constrained by charging infrastructure.

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