Mumbai, April 5, 2021 

Godrej Material Handing - a business unit of Godrej & Boyce (the flagship company of the Godrej Group) and a leading player in the material handling equipment (MHE) space - has launched the new Uno Electric Forklift truck and aims to capture 30% market share of the counterbalance electric forklift market by 2024. With advanced ergonomics, augmented safety, improved visibility, and a longer runtime on every charge, the new Uno Electric Forklift is a workhorse in the 1.5 to 3-tonne forklift category. Its performance is near comparable to a diesel forklift in the same tonnage category with the added benefit of it being gentle on the environment and rugged on the job.  

Godrej Material Handling, one of the leading players in the forklifts market in India, has been constantly innovating over the years to introduce green technologies and products. Godrej & Boyce, as part of their commitment towards the global EP100 initiative, has pledged to reduce its carbon intensity by 30% and to doubling its energy productivity by 2030. In line with this, the company has also been working on Li-ion batteries for its range of battery powered equipment. Li-ion batteries deliver more working hours while consuming less power for recharging. What’s more, unlike conventional lead acid batteries, Li-ion batteries can be charged even for short durations at every opportunity (like a lunch break) without affecting the life of the battery. The company foresees the demand for Li-ion batteries to increase significantly over the next 5 years as users need their forklift fleets to become more productive. 

Commenting on the launch, Anil Lingayat, Executive Vice President and Business Head, Godrej Material Handling said, “At Godrej, environmental sustainability has always been at the heart of the products we manufacture. In our constant efforts to give back to the environment, we are expanding our range of green forklifts by launching the new Uno Electric Forklifts that have zero emissions, are operator friendly and give our customers maximum throughput in their factories and warehouses.” 

Since the onset of the pandemic last year, consumer buying behaviour has significantly changed resulting in large quantities of products being purchased online. This provided a fillip to the already booming ecommerce industry as well as industries providing essential goods. “Producers and distributors also struggled to increase throughput of their supply chains amidst scarcity of labour. These trends are likely to continue spurring the growth of organized warehousing and logistics. Godrej Material Handling foresees rising demand for fork trucks across industry sectors. The new Uno Electric Forklifts would serve the food & beverages, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, automotive, paper & packaging, 3PL, appliances and consumer electronics industries most, even though they are versatile for most material handling operations,” added Anil Lingayat.

The specially designed new Uno Electric forklift brings in a range of benefits to the electric forklift category: