Why voltage classes exist at all
An electric forklift's motors, controllers and chargers are designed around a system voltage. Higher-voltage trucks move heavier loads and draw heavy current more efficiently; lower-voltage machines are compact and built for lighter, shorter work cycles. The battery must match the truck's electrical system exactly — a 36V truck cannot use a 48V battery — so voltage is the first line on every battery data plate and the first question in every quote.
24V: pallet jacks, stackers and small warehouse trucks
The 24V class powers the smallest machines: electric pallet jacks, stackers and compact warehouse trucks. These are high-cycle, stop-start machines that work close to charging points all day, which makes them the natural first candidates for lithium and opportunity charging. The Li-Power 25-series runs at 25.6 Vdc nominal with capacities of 205, 280, 410 and 560 Ah — 5.24 to 14.3 kWh — across a working range of 22.4 to 28.8 Vdc. A representative point: the 24V pallet jack series delivers 130 to 344 Ah options in the manufacturer's listing text with a life of 3500 cycles on LFP cells. On this class, the practical sizing question is shift length: one shift usually maps to the smaller capacities; multi-shift pallet fleets take the larger ones and top up at breaks.
36V: stand-up, narrow-aisle and mid-size trucks
The 36V class covers stand-up counterbalanced trucks, order pickers, stackers and narrow-aisle machines — Class I and Class II equipment in the standard classification. The Li-Power 38-series runs 38.4 Vdc, 205 to 560 Ah, delivering 7.8 to 21.5 kWh over a 33.6 to 43.2 Vdc working range, with a continuous working current of 300 A on the 36V forklift battery page and a headline cycle figure of 3500 cycles at 80% depth of discharge. That current figure matters in narrow-aisle work, where lift and travel loads overlap and a battery that sags slows the entire aisle. The 36V page also records the details that make the class workable in practice: an LCD state display option, a low-charge buzzer alarm, and CAN, RS485 or RS232 communication options.
48V: the mainstream counterbalance class
Most of the world's electric counterbalance forklifts run 48V, and it is the deepest class in the range. The Li-Power 51-series runs 51.2 Vdc at 200, 280, 400 and 560 Ah, with charge currents from 100 to 250 A by model. The product case for the 48V set is twice the run time of the lead-acid set it replaces and three times the service life, with five-times-faster charging making opportunity charging practical across a normal shift pattern. Every brand in the mixed-fleet programme — Heli, Hangcha, Toyota, Crown, Hyster-Yale, Raymond, Jungheinrich, Caterpillar, Doosan, Mitsubishi, Combilift — fields 48V trucks, so this is the class where brand-specific fitment pages like the Toyota and Crown pages on this site do their work.
80V: heavy trucks and high-capacity machines
The 80V class powers large counterbalance trucks and heavy material handlers, where loads are measured in tonnes and the battery is a major structural component of the machine. The Li-Power 80-series runs 80 Vdc at 206 to 560 Ah — 16.4 to 44.8 kWh per pack — over a 75 to 90 Vdc working range. At this size, the design details are about keeping the truck working: lateral charge ports for opportunity charging without removing the battery, and charger-to-BMS communication so a 44.8 kWh pack charges under supervision rather than on a timer. The full programme also includes 96V and capacities up to 1200 Ah above this class.
How to check your class, and what to send
Read the battery data plate or the truck's rating plate: voltage is printed there, along with the current Ah rating. If the plate is worn, the truck model designation usually determines the class — send the brand and model and it can be matched from the fitment families. For a quote, the useful set is: truck brand and model, voltage class, current capacity, and shift pattern. With those four, the reply can name the exact Li-Power model, tray and charger rather than a class average.
Nominal versus working voltage: reading the tables like an engineer
Buyers comparing datasheets often trip on one detail: a "48V" battery whose table says 51.2 Vdc. Both are correct. The class name (48V) is the truck system's nominal class; the pack's rated voltage (51.2 Vdc for a 16-cell LiFePO4 string) is the electrical reality, and each class has a working range around it — 48 to 57.6 Vdc for the 51.2V storage platform, 22.4 to 28.8 Vdc for 24V packs, 33.6 to 43.2 for 36V, and 75 to 90 for 80V. Chargers and truck controllers are designed for those ranges, which is why the charger must be matched to the class, and why the charger series are organised by DC voltage (24/48/80/120V) rather than by truck brand.
Capacity within a class: the second decision
Once the class is fixed by the truck, capacity is chosen from the steps — 205 to 560 Ah in the 24V and 36V classes, 200 to 560 Ah at 48V, 206 to 560 Ah at 80V. The steps exist because trucks within a class differ in motor size and duty. A useful sizing habit: match the existing lead-acid Ah rating as the baseline, then adjust for how the truck is actually used — opportunity charging means a lithium pack of the same nominal capacity delivers more working hours than the lead-acid it replaces, so there is rarely a need to step up a size "for safety" when converting.
One fleet, several classes — the normal case
Real warehouses rarely run a single class. A typical site pairs 24V pallet jacks at the dock, 36V order pickers in the aisles and 48V counterbalance trucks doing the heavy moves, with an 80V machine in the yard. That mix is exactly why the range is organised as one platform across classes: the same LiFePO4 chemistry, the same BMS concepts, the same charger family spanning 24V to 120V, and the same specification conversation repeated per truck. A fleet converting class by class — starting with the hardest-worked trucks — can do so without changing supplier or operating philosophy between phases, and the manufacturer's mixed-fleet brand programme (eleven named fleets) means the brand mix on the floor does not force a battery mix in the charging area.