Linde has announced it has completed building its 111,111th electric forklift-truck, making the 386 vehicle the most manufactured electric forklift of its kind.
The record-breaking 386 series vehicle left the assembly line at the Aschaffenburg plant in Germany recently and was celebrated by employees from across the production line.
“Our customers clearly asked for an ‘E’ product from Linde, which has a similar performance to a ‘V’ product but that is free of emissions,” said developer Wolfgang Hock, who significantly drove forward the start of production.
“The fact that the truck has been producing a steep sales curve for 11 years proves that our concept has been and is just right.”
A decade of success
Alexander Herberich, who supervised the start of production of the very first model at the plant when it was launched in 2006, said, “When we first started, we had to familiarize ourselves with this completely new truck type. The hand grips were completely different from the other product lines. Today, however, we are on first-name terms with every screw.”
The two-engine front-wheel drive, which provides excellent traction control on gradients, and the combination steering axle of the 4-wheel variant both contribute to the electric forklift’s high-performance.
The decoupled cab prevents the transmission of vibrations to the driver and an onboard charger simplifies battery charging. Since 2016, an additional lithium-ion version has been available and a total of 30 variants now exist making it a versatile machine.
Andreas Krinninger, chairman of the management board of Linde Material Handling, said, “At Linde, we are rapidly developing into a solutions provider for goods handling. However, this does not alter the central importance of the forklift for our business. We continue to put our entire expertise and our full passion into this. I am proud that Linde manufactures the world’s most successful electric forklift truck series. We will do everything to keep it that way in the future.”
October 27, 2017
