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Worldwide, and in Europe in particular, regulations regarding CO₂ emissions and noise are becoming much stricter. With this comes a change of outlook for car owners, as well as for transport companies and building contractors. In the short term, there are many cities where access for diesel vehicles will be simply forbidden. Focusing on this new reality, more and more rental companies are changing the way they manage their equipment fleets by investing in an increasing number of clean solutions to support their aerial offering.

With environmental sensitivities in mind, new technologies, such as the new Genie electric drive — or e-drive — system, are aerial manufacturers’ response to the growing worldwide demand for “green” access solutions.

Throughout the last decade, significant advancements have been made in the development of electric drive systems. In the car industry, we’ve seen the evolution from the introduction of the Toyota Prius to today’s high performance Tesla models. The construction equipment industry has kept a close eye on these emerging technologies, and as they prove themselves with consumers on the highways, we are adapting them for success on the jobsite.

At the forefront of this movement to incorporate newer electric drive technology into aerial equipment has been Genie. For decades, we’ve offered DC-drive boom lifts, such as the Genie^® Z^®-30/20 model (introduced in 1985). Newer generations of Genie boom lifts, like the Genie Z-33/18 and Z-60/37 DC models, incorporate updated DC technology. But, we have also advanced our offerings to include models with AC drive motors, like the Genie Z-60/37 FE hybrid model.

And today, we’ve started applying our DC and AC electric drive technologies to our scissor lift models, starting with the new Genie GS™-1330m and GS-4655.

Adapting this technology from our booms to our scissor lifts isn’t as simple as taking it off one model and putting it on another. We had to carefully understand the market need for the equipment and the technology.

As a result of our research and development efforts, Genie has recently introduced new e-drive systems for scissor lifts — both DC and AC — to the market. Both our DC and AC e-drive systems are efficient electric drive systems with the benefits of quiet, emission-free operation and industry-leading runtime in a compact package for productive, all day long performance. This increased runtime is especially important in applications that involve significant amounts of driving.

Other benefits of the new Genie e-drive systems are that they ensure a full workday shift operation that can be used on both indoor and outdoor jobsites, delivering more traction power than previous solutions. This enhances our scissor lifts’ ramp climbing and gradeability performance. Further maximizing productivity on our larger scissor lifts, models equipped with AC e-drive systems benefit from a new regenerative braking system, similar to the systems used in the auto industry.

Replacing traditional hydraulic drive motors with new DC or AC systems, Genie e-drive scissor lifts rely on less hydraulic service points reducing service time and costs for a cleaner and greener usage. And offering enhanced proportional control which makes these units faster and more responsive to work with, operators can use Genie scissor lifts equipped with e-drive systems confidently for excellent “green” productivity and efficiency.

In today’s increasingly competitive “green” aerial access market, rental store owners looking for new ways to differentiate their businesses by adding more eco-responsible machines to their fleets appreciate this new-generation electric technology. Today’s Genie scissor lift models use less energy and offer an extended battery life, making them more ecological than traditional designs. And because these new Genie scissor lifts are designed with a minimum amount of hydraulics, Genie models equipped e-drive systems boast cleaner operation, helping contractors and rental companies rise to the current and future environmental challenges.