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.
Cordless products are a lot less noisy than gas products, and that's one of the factors that make customers a bit hesitant to make the change, because they equate noise with power. This is a cordless blower that has very similar and better power than most gas-engine handheld blowers.
Notice the noise level on this product when I turn it on at the highest level.
That noise level right there, to a commercial user would say, "That product has no power." But in essence there's more work coming out of the end of that blower than most handheld gas products.
Therefore, it changes the way people can approach work. For example, if you're at a high-end residential home, a high-quality home that has a pool deck, the lawn and maintenance people usually must schedule around when people are there.
Now the maintenance people can reschedule their work because they're not being intrusive with noise, the gas engine smell and all that. So, basically you can run a product while people are doing their every-day work and play.
This has a huge opportunity, but we have to change the way people think, and change the culture to accept this technology in the market.