Faresin electric telehandler sprints to complete 12 month shift

As the UK's first all-electric telehandler to join the Flannery Plant Hire fleet from UK dealer GGR Group, the Faresin 6.26 has recently finished a 12 month shift with Tier 1 contractor Morgan Sindall. 

Purchased by Flannery Plant Hire in 2020, the Faresin 6.26 was the UK's first all-electric telehandler to join its fleet, which now has a total of six units, with more to come. The machine itself can be specified with three different battery options, delivering up to 10 hours of operation on a full charge. 

Having worked on various projects, in 2021, the 6.26 joined the Morgan Sindall team to support the delivery of the new £42 M' congestion busting' Sprint bus corridor. This was a new project designed to deliver improved journey times and more reliable services linking Walsall, Birmingham and Solihull in the West Midlands. The first section to be completed also supported visitors to the Commonweath Games.

As the main contractor on the project, which has created new and extended existing bus lanes along the A45 and A34, giving buses priority at junctions to beat the traffic jams, Morgan Sindall invested heavily in its supporting infrastructure. 

At its main project depot on the outskirts of Birmingham City Centre, it created offices and storage facilities for workers and materials needed to deliver the project. These included traffic management assets, lighting towers, generators and even storage to manage the planting of over 3000 trees during the project. 

As part of a more sustainable approach to the site, the team invested in a fleet of electric vans and hired the Faresin telehander. Operator Happy Singh used this for general tasks, like moving items around the site, loading and unloading. 

The Faresin 6.26 is powered by a lithium-ion battery. It offers a six metre lift height and 2,600kg maximum lift capacity with a maximum forward reach of 3.1 metres at which it can handle 900kg. 

Explaining his experience operating the machine, Happy said: It took me a couple of days to get used to the controls and of course, how to put it on charge in my breaks. 

Handling wise, it's very similar to a diesel powered machine, but of course, it's much quieter. Unlike a diesel machine, with this being all electric, I can also use it across the whole site, including inside our warehouse. This has been very useful when we needed to protect materials from the weather.

"Because it's electric, the power is also instant, so you have to get used to the sensitivity of the accelerator and the joystick controls, but that's just like any new machine you get. I definitely think it's the way forward for sites like this, where you have all the charging available in a designated area. I have never had any problems with charging, and the battery on the machine is more than enough to do the tasks I need."

Working in a tight, confined area, Happy is also able to use the rearview camera to support safer operation. And the Faresin 6.26 also comes with a lift warning and anti tipping system. 

For Eddie Anderton, Senior Works Manager for Morgan Sindall, the project has been a perfect opportunity to test out how to deliver a greener site model. Eddie: "For our A45 section of this route, we were required to work in and around the new Green Emission Zone in Birmingham, so even at the tender stage, I was working with the team on how we could deliver a greener approach. 

This also allowed us to have some early engagement discussions with the Flannery Plant Hire team to explore our fleet options. They provided the Faresin 6.26 telehandler and some electric excavators for this project. And for all of the other equipment, we used HVO fuel. 

"These greener choices helped us to secure the work from Transport for West Midlands, whilst also providing us with the data on carbon emissions and proven use cases for different greener solutions. This information has been monitored throughout the project and will support us in our own goals to be net zero by 2030."  

For Morgan Sindall working to deliver new infrastructure using electric machines is all about getting a sites delivery infrastructure planned and installed, as Eddie explained: 

"We installed a total of 16 charging points at our depot with a designated charger for the telehandler, and the others used to charge our electric vehicles. They were joined by solar welfare units, lighting and battery operated CCTV solutions."

"Working with Flannery, we could also have our equipment dashboard using the MachineMax system that connects all of the Flannery fleet throughout our project. The team and I could access this at any time and see where the plant was, what work it had been doing and, therefore, what carbon impact it generated. 

"This also included information from the telehandler. So even though I was a bit sceptical at first about the performance and longevity of the battery, it quickly became very clear from the data and our operator Happy Singh that it was ideal for the job. We now know how impactful alternative fuelled machines can be and how we can integrate electric machines into the mix."  

For Chris Matthew of Flannery Plant Hire, having data available on the machine and its performance was critical to future investment decisions.

Chris: "Since we have been able to analyse the performance of the Faresin telehandler, we now know what type of activities and use cases are suited to the machine. 

"With this information to hand, we have been able to show more customers how they can adopt electric machines, which has led to us increasing our fleet to six units. All of these machines are now connected assets, thanks to the work Faresin and its UK dealer GGR Group has done to make the data readily available to our equipment management platform provider MachineMax. 

"As we continue to collect and analyse more data, we will also be able to look at fleet purchasing decisions based on real-world activities. This will influence the different battery options from Faresin and, of course, decisions around the purchase of new products in its pipeline 

"There is definitely a place for electric machines in our fleet mix, and that is why we will continue to work in partnership with OEM's to feedback on what our customers' needs are and how future product developments can support them."

To find out more about the machine Peter spoke to Faresin International product specialist, Nicolae Manea: "Inside the cab to the right of the operator, we have a series of buttons that control some of the key functions like the parking brake and the Eco or power operating mode of the machine. The operator can also control the flow, boom suspension and floating boom features, as well as the LED lights.

"The joystick mounted to the right hand side of the cab has a toggle switch for forward, neutral and reverse, and these functions can also be accessed from a lever on the left hand side of the steering column. 

"Embedded into the right hand side of the dashboard is a 7 inch LCD display which shares general information on the hours worked, the charge on the battery and any alerts. It also links to the rearview camera to support safer operation. 

"Right in front of the operator we have mounted our anti tipping system display that supports safer operation. Using LED lights this system automatically calculates the load on the front of the machine that is either being carried or lifted. Particularly for lifting, this system alerts the operator to ensure they keep within safe operation."

The cab is protected by a FOPS solution, allowing the operator to see through the glass roof to support lifting. At the rear of the machine, Faresin has added a second electric motor that covers the hydraulic demand with the main drive motor placed at the front of the machine, separating both demand elements.

On the right hand side of the machine, Faresin has housed a lithium ion battery with the cooling package and the inverter for charging, with three battery options now available. 

Nicolae: "We now have a 330A.h, 440A.h and our new 560A.h battery options. These can all be charged from our built in charger housed underneath the battery. We have both a standard and fast charger option, depending on what charging levels are required. For fast charging, you can charge the battery between an hour and two hours, depending on its size. But for Morgan Sindall on this project, they simply parked up the telehandler and plugged it in when the machine was not working, topping up the battery throughout the day."   

With the electric equipment and vehicles helping to create new infrastructure, it's fitting that National Express West Midlands has already been running the first of a fleet of zero-emission buses, which will, in the future, include hydrogen-powered vehicles on the route.