Doosan Corporation Industrial Vehicle (DIV), the material handling equipment unit of South Korea’s conglomerate Doosan Group, unveiled a line of new-generation forklift trucks to raise the bar for heavy duty work.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of its foundation on Friday, the company introduced a high-tech forklift model BS7 running on lithium-ion batteries. It said the lithium-ion battery will allow the vehicle to run two to three times longer hours than the existing lead-acid battery with a 33 percent shorter charging time. The new forklift truck also boasts a constant output, high productivity at a temperature as low as 40 degrees below zero and simple and eco-friendly maintenance and management, the company explained.

Another new technology introduced at the event was a telematics solution Lin-Q for management of forklifts. The system transmits data for maintenance and operation in real time to allow its users to remotely monitor the equipment.

The company also aims to release an artificial intelligence-based smart mode application that analyzes the engine data of machines to automatically adjust the power to the environment later this year.

DIV, founded in 1968, started manufacturing forklifts for the first time in Korea. It also launched an electric forklift first in the country in 1979 and expanded its business to overseas markets by establishing operations in the U.S., the UK and Belgium. It currently has factories in China and Germany. The company earned about 800 billion won ($782 million) in sales last year and set a sales goal of 1.5 trillion won by 2022.

“Doosan Corporation Industrial Vehicle as an industry leader will expand the business to rental, service, logistics and management sectors to provide a total solution for logistics,” said Dong Hyun-Soo, the vice chairman of Doosan Corp.

By Lee Dong-in and Lee Ha-yeon

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