Unique hybrids required

Power systems expert at Perkins stresses that on-highway electric solutions cannot be directly applied to the more-rugged and varied applications in off-highway.

Hybrid powertrains still account for a small portion of the off-highway vehicle market-less than 1%, according to Oliver Lythgoe, product marketing executive at Perkins-but interest is most certainly intensifying. Engine makers cannot delay R&D activities in this area, lest they be left behind.

“Outside of forklift trucks, electrical machines are a very small part of the market as well,” Lythgoe told Truck & Off-Highway Engineering at the bauma 2019 trade show in Munich. But that will not always be the case, he added. “We have to be able to help OEMs plot out those strategies and make sure that when the market changes, either through economics or regulation, that they're ready.”