Let’s cross that chasm with a lift truck
June 2nd, 2009
If there was one interesting thing to come out of Steven Crolius’ presentation yesterday morning, it was his mention of Geoffrey Moore’s book, Crossing the Chasm. In his book, Moore makes the case that, when it comes to high tech products, a chasm exists between commercial products and mainstream markets, and that taking a “stepping stone” approach to getting across the divide is the way to go. In a nutshell, companies can do that by choosing the right markets to target initially (typically smaller, niche markets where needs are more narrowly defined (i.e. fuel cell-powered lift trucks in three shift operations)) and then using that group to market to the next.
When it comes to fuel cells, you’ve only got to take a look around at this conference to see just how applicable and relevant this “stepping stone” concept is; how many companies are here talking about emerging and smaller market applications for hydrogen and fuel cell technology? I know things like generators and lift trucks aren’t sexy like cars are sexy but when you start taking about fuel cell value props in non-automotive markets, I’d be lying to say the dollars and cents don’t turn people on.
This morning’s Commercial Products: Material Handling (MH) session was the best session I’ve been to yet. It was great to hear well-rounded, encouraging updates from this market segment and, if people didn’t see the compelling value proposition of this market segment by the end of the session, they must have been asleep in their chairs.
Steve Medwin from Raymond explained Raymond’s ultimate goal is full integration of fuel cell technology into new lift trucks, rather than the fuel cell emulator model of today, where batteries are swapped out for fuel cell power packs. Medwin explained that not only will this facilitate improved energy efficiency of the combined system; he believes it’ll result in a lower cost of ownership for customers.
Thomas Joseph from Air Products described MH as changing the hydrogen infrastructure equation, explaining Air Products alone is doing 300 or more fills a day right now, with a target of 600 per day by September (as compared to 200 fills per week for hydrogen-powered cars). Interesting to note … of the 100,000 Air Products fills to date, more than 50,000 have been MH refuelings. What Joseph also said was that fueling solutions for MH will look the same for automotive, so the work being done in MH is paving the way for automotive too. Sounds like a good example of one of Moore’s “stepping stones” to me.
Andy Marsh from Plug Power described one of Plug’s customers increasing its daily pallet moves quota from 118 moves per hour to more than 140; all because they swapped out the batteries in their lift trucks for fuel cells. And they’re fun to drive too! Here’s a short video testimonial from a “real life” lift truck operator.
Finally, Mikael Sloth from H2 Logic presented a very different value prop for MH applications in Europe. There, the productivity gains offered by fuel cells don’t hold the same sway as in North American, because in Europe, battery swapping is done in a tenth of the time (two minutes versus approximately 20), and lithium ion battery technology is enabling highly efficient two shift operations. In Europe, the value prop’s offering an alternative to LPG and diesel heavy duty lift trucks and the need to reduce emissions. Did you know, for example, that replacing an LPG or diesel lift truck with a fuel cell one can remove the emissions equivalent of more than eight cars?
Like I said before, a great session. I recommend a visit to any one of these presenters’ booths for more information. And, for those of you interested in learning more about fuel cells for MH in general, there’s a great current article from DC Velocity that’s worth a read, here.
Brought to you by Rebecca at Puzzlewood.
One Response to “Let’s cross that chasm with a lift truck”
1Jane Huff
February 15th, 2010 @ 4:08 am
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