Manitou Group, a manufacturer in the handling, aerial work platform and earth-moving sectors, signed an exclusive 12-month partnership agreement with Kiloutou, a player in Europe’s equipment rental sector, to offer electrification kits for Manitou’s used internal-combustion-engine telehandler.
“We are currently rolling out our choice of low-emissions machines in our Oxygen range," said Michel Denis, president and CEO of Manitou Group. "We were also looking for an alternative to our internal combustion machines that are already in operation to take the next step in this direction. Kiloutou is particularly open to this kind of solutions, so we will be working together to create retrofit kits. The goal is to extend our products’ useful life and at the same time shrink our carbon footprint.”
Retrofitting these machines will extend their useful life while reducing their environmental impact, in particular their carbon emissions, in accordance with the commitments that both groups have made in their respective CSR roadmaps.
This project, which will roll out over the next two years, is aimed at testing the technical and economic feasibility of electrifying telehandlers initially designed and marketed with internal combustion engines. The first phase of the test is being carried out on a high lifting height telehandler demonstrator in Kiloutou’s rental fleet.
During 2023, this internal combustion telehandler will be dismantled and reassembled with an electrification kit at Manitou Group’s production plant in Ancenis, then tested in real-life conditions at Kiloutou’s test center near Lille. After the machine clears the test, Manitou Group will be in a position to offer electrification kits for machines refurbished using new or pre-owned parts, exclusively to Kiloutou Group. This distribution will be carried out for a period of 12 months from the beginning of 2024, on several machines in Kiloutou's fleet. These kits comprise several components including a lithium-ion battery, and open the door to switching from internal combustion engines to extremely low-carbon full-electric motors.
Most of the retrofitting work in this partnership will involve machines that Kiloutou has had in its rental fleet for about five years. This option addresses the need to speed up the transition to lower-carbon machinery. Once they have been retrofitted with electrification kits, the revamped machines will be included in the Impakt range of environmentally-friendly alternatives, and be available in Kiloutou branches in France.
