On January 8, 2013, BYD held a grand ceremony to celebrate the roll-off of 2.5T electric counterbalanced forklift, global first series of forklifts that had been equipped with iron alkaline battery at Huizhou Production Base, on which BYD 3.5T counterbalanced forklifts were also shown for the first time. The President of BYD Wang Chuanfu, Senior Vice President Wang Nianqiang and representatives of dealers and media attended the ceremony. On the ceremony, President Wang Chuanfu pointed out that BYD paid full attention to the field of electric forklifts making use of new energy, devoting to building up high-end forklifts of improved quality, innovative technology and unique design. He also emphasized that BYD Forklift would not only pursue breakthroughs in terms of technology and product, but also from the aspect of applying new promotion mode.

On the domestic market, 3.5T counterbalanced forklifts occupied more than 50% of the whole marketing shares in the forklift segment. At present, most of the 3.5T counterbalanced forklifts on the market were internal combusted. Traditional lead-acid battery forklift was mainly small tonnage, 1.5T and 2.5T. As the lead-acid battery could not meet the actual requirements of large-tonnage forklift to undertake heavy load and offer higher efficiency, the development of 3.5T lead-acid battery forklift stayed still, and domestic market for 3.5T electric forklifts was for a long time sinking into a dilemma that the demand was too far to reach as there was no product at all. BYD started the operation from battery production, relying on which the company applied their self-developed iron alkaline battery technology into the field of large-tonnage electric forklifts and broke through the bottleneck of large-tonnage electric forklift development for the first time.

The successful launch of BYD 3.5T electric forklifts widens the application range of electric forklifts and will cover the most important part of domestic forklift market, providing a totally new large-tonnage electric forklift solution for express companies, logistics companies, warehouses and large-scaled enterprises.

It was informed that the iron alkaline battery installed on BYD electric forklifts was of the same specifications as those on BYD autos, which was one of the core technologies in the new energy segment in BYD. Iron alkaline battery has longer life, and the capacity residue will be more than 75% after circulated charging and discharging for 4000 times. Used as the power for forklifts, iron alkaline battery can last for more than 10 years, and its life even exceeds that of the forklift itself. The usage efficiency of iron alkaline battery is as high as 90%, and will be maintenance free for the whole lifetime. BYD provides the customers with a long period of quality guarantee, lowering the equipment cost dramatically compared with conventional lead-acid battery forklifts. Moreover, iron alkaline battery can be charged and discharged in large power, saving lots of charging time.
　
The manager of BYD electric forklift sales department introduced to the media that BYD began to cooperate with the finance organization to provide a more attractive electric forklift solution for the customers. BYD planed to rely on the innovative sales mode to break through the new market rapidly. By the new sales mode, BYD electric forklifts will truly become the knockout products to realize the reciprocal win of customers, enterprises and also social environment.