Download and print a copy of the Battery Charging Standards White Paper.
Ignition is becoming an issue for rental companies that have diverse product lines in their equipment fleets: fuel is fuel when it comes to gas equipment, but battery charging systems may vary by manufacturer. When batteries and chargers can’t talk to each other, it can mean headaches.
That’s why the American Rental Association (ARA) is working with organizations like the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) to push for battery energy standards that are effective and efficient for rental companies.
“We’ve put together a white paper with some examples to help both contractors and rental companies that have mixed fleets,” says Josh Nickell, ECP-SM/MI, vice president of the equipment segment at the American Rental Association (ARA ). “We understand that manufacturers want to differentiate themselves with their equipment, but the way the equipment connects and charges should not be a differentiating factor.”
Battery packs with different charge rates and battery degradation lifetimes will inevitably vary by manufacturer, but “The equipment should be charged the same way,” says Nickell. “If you think about the electric vehicle space, everyone is adopting Tesla’s charging standards. We want to see the same in the rental sector — probably the same that they use in electric vehicles that our manufacturers use.”
Nickell offers a scenario around this vision. “You can pull your mini excavator or backhoe that’s electrified, plug it into an outlet and slowly charge it overnight. You can plug it into a 240 and charge it faster. You can charge it from your Ford F-150 Lightning, from the DC fast charger on the street or the Tesla charger. Just like you would with your vehicle, your gear should charge wherever you are.”
The crux of the problem, Nickell says, is that “We can’t have 17 different dongles and try to figure out what we ship with each rental customer because it’s manufacturer-specific.”
Gaining acceptance of charging standards from the manufacturing sector is critical to alleviating the beer problem.
“The manufacturers that will be successful in this change, especially with rental companies and large contractors, are the ones that understand that loading needs to be standardized,” says Nickell. “There are many ways to differentiate your piece of equipment, but the way it connects and the types of things that connect to it, that has to be the same. If you have to have completely different systems for a different manufacturer , rental companies will not purchase this equipment because it will be too difficult operationally for our branches and our customers to effectively load these items.”
