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Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec), a wholly owned subsidiary of ECOtality, Inc., a leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies, announced the ten-year anniversary of the first commercial installation of eTec’s Minit-Charger fast-charge technology. Initially developed to fast-charge electric vehicles, the technology has applications in various electric-power operations and is currently used in material handling, low-speed electric vehicles and airport ground support operations. December 2008 marks the ten-year anniversary of Minit-Charger’s first commercial installation for material handling operations. The initial installation also remains the longest running fast-charge operation to-date.
“With over 4,800 charging stations in operation in over 270 facilities in North America, eTec Minit-Charger has powered more than 90 million operational hours and is the most advanced and reliable fast-charge technology,” said Kevin Morrow, Executive Vice President of eTec Minit-Charger. “By transitioning from battery-swapping operations to the eTec Minit-Charger system, our clients experience immediate cost-savings, improved worker safety, and increased productivity. As the pioneering fast-charge technology, Minit-Charger has powered the material handling needs of Fortune 500 companies for over a decade and has proven that fast-charging is the safest, most reliable, and most economic power choice for mobile vehicles. Through our unparalleled fast-charging experience, we remain the most qualified provider of charging stations for material handling and on-road electric vehicle applications.”
Traditional material handling operations consist of swapping 2500-pound batteries out of equipment and replacing them with freshly-charged batteries - a time-consuming process that slows operations, requires dedicated battery-charging and swapping areas, numerous spare batteries and poses obvious safety concerns. Utilizing eTec’s Minit-Charger systems, material handling operations can recharge lift-truck batteries in convenient 10 to 15 minute periods (i.e. breaks, shift changes or lunch), eliminating the need for handling heavy batteries, reducing the amount of batteries purchased and saving valuable floor space. By transitioning to eTec Minit-Charger from a battery-swapping process, warehouses and distribution centers typically experience a 40% annual cost savings and recover over 250 annual operating hours per truck.
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