Electrovaya to supply snack food maker with lithium-ion forklift batteries

TORONTO—Battery maker Electrovaya Inc. is supplying Mondelez Canada Inc. lithium-ion forklift batteries. Electrovaya says replacing lead acid batteries with its Lithium Ion 2.0 technology should enhance productivity, reduce emissions and reduce power requirements by up to 35 per cent.

Electrovaya plans to deliver lithium-ion battery packs with intelligent battery management systems (iBMS) to Mondelez Distribution Center in Toronto. Field trials will occur throughout this quarter.

“Three shift operations using conventional lead acid batteries suffer from reduced electrical efficiencies, lower productivity and higher maintenance costs. Lithium 2.0 technology is essentially maintenance free, increases productivity substantially and allows the operation to run continuously over three shifts,” says Andy Ganapathy, vice-president of sales at Electrovaya. “We believe that lithium-ion technology will replace both lead acid and hydrogen fuel cells for electric forklifts, similar to the way the electric automobile is essentially all powered by lithium-ion today,” adds Ganapathy.

Mondelez Canada is a divisions of global snack maker Mondelez International, Inc., which posted 2013 revenue of US$35 billion by making and selling brands such as Cadbury, CadburyDairyMilk and Milka chocolate, Jacobs coffee, LU, Nabisco and Oreo biscuits, Tang beverages and Trident gum.

Electrovaya designs, develops and manufactures proprietary lithium-ion super polymer batteries, battery systems, and battery-related products for the clean electric transportation, utility-scale energy ttorage and smart grid power, consumer and healthcare markets.