Sunlight Not Diesel

Forklifts at Rapp’s Wine Press House Fuel Free in the Future / Electric Charging Stations Barely Used

STILL Being Used at Rapp's Wine Pressers

Challenge: reduction of operational expenses and improved environmental friendliness

Solution: step-by-step conversion of the entire forklift fleet from engine to electric

Products: RX 60 Electric Lift

Juice and Apple Wine producer Rapp’s in Karben depends on the sun in more ways than one. For one thing, their raw materials - fruits grown for the most part locally - need the sun to grow and ripen. And now the company is also banking on the sun to power their fleet of forklift trucks.

Yesterday, managing director Klaus-Dieter Kneip announced that seven forklifts – their entire fleet of these trucks – have been converted from engine to electric in a step-by-step process. "Five of them are used daily", said the 61 year old manager at the Hassia subsidiary. "We told ourselves that, together with our new photovoltaic facilities, this makes our contribution to the environmental protection just perfect."

Acquisitions have allowed the company to grow, in opposition the trend in the industry. Another brand was purchased in January meaning that the company's warehouse is often filled to the rafters with bottles of juice. The roofs of the facilities are covered with 3,000 square meters of photovoltaic panels which provide an in-house source of power for the forklifts. These were installed two years ago.

Lowered Consumption

Thanks to Electric Trucks

Early trials conducted by parent company Hassia since 2009 have shown that consumption truly has been reduced since conversion to electric trucks took place. According to Rapp's, using a diesel truck to load or unload a lorry costs 3.66 Euros - an electric truck, however, only 2.16 Euros. Rapp’s still used 26,400 litres of fuel last year. Now, however, the Karben company is expecting to spend 12,000 Euros less, says managing director Kneip.

The company, with its 75 employees and a customer radius of 200 kilometres at the most, has strong roots in the region. "Natural sources" such as the sun are not only important for growing their apples but, now, also in the day to day operation of their vehicle fleet.

That which absolutely seems to make good sense financially for the company is, however, still rare on the normal streets in their hometown Karben. Drivers of electric cars do have two charging facilities from which to choose from. But they are hardly used because there are simply too few electric vehicles on the road in the region.

Two years ago, Friedberger Ovag and the Frankfurt energy supplier Mainova each set up an e-charging station in Karben. One is in front of the local swimming pool in Klein-Karben and the other in front of city hall. According to the magistrate, they are also used occasionally by e-bikes but the large majority of the electricity flows into the car owned by the city and provided by Mainova. In 2012, only 54 full recharges took place at the facility in front of the city hall. This corresponds to the amount that is used by Karben's electric car should city hall employees use it daily. There is, however, one disadvantage. The electric runabout has to be charged up again after 150 kilometres of driving.

Krombacher

V-Stapler

STILL har sammen med Krombacher udviklet en forbedret elektrisk gaffeltruck af typen RX 60-50/600. Resultatet er imponerende ikke mindst takket være dens emissionsfrie effektivitet.

Til eksemplet fra den virkelige verden

Radlberger

Den forbedrede ydeevne på STILL el-truck RX 60-50 sikrer, at det 10-årige partnerskab med drikkeproducenten Radlberger også vil fortsætte i fremtiden.

Til eksemplet fra den virkelige verden

I praksis

Eksemplerne fra den virkelige verden og uafhængige tests af vores produkter viser: at STILLs elektriske gaffeltrucks og motortrucks er både de mest økonomiske og kraftfulde gaffeltrucks i branchen.

Et overblik over eksemplerne