The lines that actually exist
Every forklift TCO model reduces to the same short list. Models that add drama usually hide a line; models that drop lines usually hide it in the seller's favour. Here is the complete set, with notes on who controls each.
- Purchase price (or lease rate). Configuration-dependent — the 3-ton cost guide maps the lines for one class.
- Energy or fuel. Electricity at your tariff against diesel at your pump price, times hours — the fuel hours model for the diesel side.
- Maintenance and consumables. Scheduled service, tires, forks, chains; the diesel engine adds its layer per the diesel schedule, while lithium removes the battery-watering half of lead-acid care.
- Battery replacement or second pack. Lead-acid fleets carry this line explicitly; lithium fleets carry it as end-of-life planning per the cycle-life guide.
- Infrastructure. Charging points for electric; fuel storage, ventilation and cylinder cages for combustion.
- Downtime cost. Hours lost times output per hour — the line powered by the same maintenance discipline forklift fleets run.
- Operator time. Refuelling, swapping, charging behaviour — opportunity charging returns fragments lead-acid never could.
- Residual value. What the truck sells for at the end, driven by hours, service records and battery documentation.
The two lines buyers forget are downtime and operator time, precisely because neither arrives on an invoice. Both are measurable, and both routinely decide close comparisons.
| Line | Electric (EP / ST) | Diesel (DF) | Lead-acid electric |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | Lowest per hour at typical tariffs | Highest and most volatile | Low, plus charging losses |
| Maintenance | Shared core only — no engine layer | Full engine layer | Core plus battery watering |
| Battery capex | In purchase price; end-of-life planning | None | Replacements mid-life are expected |
| Infrastructure | Outlets at pause points | Fuel store | Ventilated battery room, swap gear |
| Downtime levers | Charging discipline, few fluid systems | Fuel and filter discipline | Swap schedule |
Building yours in an afternoon
- Pull the hours: shifts, days, idle share — one honest week of metering beats a year of estimates.
- Price energy on your own tariffs and pump prices, not category claims.
- Take maintenance from the manufacturer schedules, not from folklore.
- Price downtime from your own output per hour, even roughly.
- Add infrastructure for the site you actually have.
- Run it for two power types and let the numbers end the argument.
Where the honest gaps sit
We publish reference ranges and structured quotes, not TCO promises: tariffs, hours and site conditions are yours, and any vendor who guarantees you a payback period without reading your metering is selling a story. What we do commit to is the data side — full specifications, load charts, maintenance schedules and battery documentation with every quotation, so your model runs on manufacturer numbers instead of brochure numbers. Send the duty cycle through the RFQ and the engineering team returns the spec within 12 hours on average; the TCO arithmetic then stays in your spreadsheet where it belongs.
The spreadsheet skeleton you can copy
Structure your TCO sheet as rows per line above and columns per truck candidate, with three sub-columns each: annual cost, basis, and source of the basis. The discipline that matters is the third column — every number traces to a metered week, a manufacturer schedule, or a quotation document. Lines with "estimate" in the source column get metered before they get believed. Run the model over your planned holding period, include the residual line at the end, and compare the totals per hour rather than per year, because fleets live in hours. An afternoon builds the first version; a year of real logs refines it into the most honest document in the fleet’s files — and the one every future purchase conversation starts from.
Re-run the model when something big changes
A TCO model is not carved once; it is re-run at the moments that change its inputs: a tariff change, a shift added, a contract won or lost, a battery approaching its cycle count. Keep the sheet dated with its assumptions, and re-run it at each trigger — the new total either confirms the fleet you are running or starts the conversation about the one you should be. Fleets that re-run on triggers never wake up obsolete; the model waved its arms first. That is the quiet purpose of the whole exercise: not a report, but an early-warning system for the largest moving cost on the site, written in your own numbers and refreshed whenever the world that produced them moves.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main cost lines in forklift TCO?
Purchase or lease, energy or fuel, maintenance and consumables, battery life-cycle cost, infrastructure, downtime, operator time, and residual value. The forgotten lines are downtime and operator time.
Is electric always cheaper to run than diesel?
Not always — it depends on your hours, tariffs, and duty. Run the same hours model on both power types with your own numbers; the electric vs diesel guide shows the framework.
How do I estimate downtime cost?
Hours lost per year times your output value per hour. Even a rough figure usually makes maintenance discipline look like the bargain it is.
Does lithium really remove battery costs?
It restructures them: no mid-life replacement or watering, with end-of-life planning instead. Cycle life against your duty decides the arithmetic.
Will Granvolt give me a payback guarantee?
No — tariffs and hours are yours. We commit to full specifications, load charts and documentation so your own TCO model runs on manufacturer numbers.