The California Air Resource Board Low Carbon Fuel Standard credit program was once exclusive to road-use vehicle fuels. It began with credit producers making biodiesel, ethanol, CNG, hydrogen, or road EV chargers. The credit generation opportunity is now available to owners of charging stations for off road vehicles also. This makes warehouse operators using electric material handling equipment a new beneficiary of the program.

The opportunity to claim credits for charge station fuel production is available quarterly to owners of electric lift truck chargers. Charger efficiency, battery size, and fleet usage data is used to calculate metric tons of CO2 saved by the low-carbon fuel alternative being utilized. This information is delivered to CARB for review and credit assessment. After the CARB 90 day review period credits are allocated to trading accounts and are then available to be sold to regulated parties who have a deficit due to high carbon fuel production.

Battery electric has long been a preferred fuel source for MHE in many applications. The income potential of LCFS raises the appeal of going electric to an even greater share of the material handling market. New lithium battery options for lift trucks allow faster charging and facilitate heavy use of electric lift trucks without battery changing. They also offer a more energy-efficient storage of electricity and do not require maintenance like flooded lead acid batteries.