Makita U.S.A. hosted a booth at the Electric Power Research Institute’s Electrification 2018 International Conference & Exposition held in Long Beach, California August 20-23, 2018. With over 1,700 attendees, engaging speakers and panels, and a show floor chock full of the latest technology, PUF’s Steve Mitnick caught up with Dennis Stauch, VP and General Manager for Outdoor Power Equipment – Makita U.S.A.
PUF’s Steve Mitnick: What's the pushback you're talking about?
Dennis Stauch: The pushback in switching from gas over to cordless is the uncertainty associated with just change. Batteries have a different operating kind of character to them. The controls are a little bit different, the output is a little bit different, and the charging is a little bit different.
A lot of the companies that deal in these kinds of equipment don't have the ability to do charging on their trucks, so they've got to leave their yards or the facilities, then run all day long, and they're concerned about the range, similar to vehicles.
These products have to have range. They've got to be able to run eight to ten hours a day, and not cause problems where all of a sudden, they'll run out of power, and the job's over. This is a time and money type of thing for customers, so it's very important that these products run and give the commercial durability, which is basically all-day run time and not having any hassles about, "Well, where am I going to get my power from?", whether it's gasoline or batteries.
So that's really the pushback the concern about, "Where do I hook up to recharge these batteries as they go down?"