THE SHORT ANSWER
A lithium forklift's full charge time is roughly battery amp-hours divided by charger amps, plus a taper allowance: a 150Ah pack on a 50A charger takes about 3–3.5 hours; a 280Ah pack on a 60A charger about 5 hours; a 270Ah pack on a 100A fast charger about 3 hours. In practice you rarely charge 0–100%: a 45-minute lunch break on a 100A charger returns roughly a quarter of a 270Ah pack, which is how single-battery multi-shift work operates.
The honest maths
Charge time is not a marketing number — it’s arithmetic. Hours ≈ battery amp-hours ÷ charger amps, plus 10–20% for the taper phase at the top of the charge (the charger slows down to balance cells safely). Temperature and the battery’s starting state move the result, but the arithmetic gets you within half an hour.
Here is that maths applied to the actual delivery configurations of our five-model fleet — not brochure best-cases:
| Machine | Pack | Charger | 0→100% (with taper) | Power required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP EFL181 (1.8 t) | 48V / 150Ah (≈7.2 kWh) | 50A built-in | ≈ 3–3.5 h | Single-phase 15A outlet |
| EP EFX5-251 (2.5 t) | 80V / 280Ah (≈22.4 kWh) | 60A external | ≈ 5–5.5 h | Three-phase |
| EP EFX5-351 (3.5 t) | 80V / 280Ah (≈22.4 kWh) | 60A external | ≈ 5–5.5 h | Three-phase |
| BYD EL20-Pro (2 t) | 80V / 210Ah (≈16.8 kWh) | 100A fast | ≈ 2.5 h | Three-phase |
| BYD EL25-Pro (2.5 t) | 80V / 270Ah (≈21.6 kWh) | 100A fast | ≈ 3 h | Three-phase |
Rates are the standard hire configuration; the EFX5 platform also accepts 35A–200A charger options and the BYD packs come in 210–540Ah sizes, which shift these numbers proportionally — ask in the quote if your shift pattern needs a different pairing.
Why full-charge time is the wrong question
Lead-acid thinking says “run it down, charge it overnight”. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry inverts that: opportunity charging — partial top-ups whenever the machine is parked — is the designed usage pattern, not an abuse of it.
What a break actually returns (charger amps × break time, as a share of the pack):
- 45-minute lunch on the 100A BYD charger: ~75Ah back into a 270Ah pack — roughly 28%, or about 2 extra working hours
- Two 20-minute smoko breaks on the 60A EFX5 charger: ~40Ah — about 14% of the 280Ah pack
- A 3-hour quiet afternoon on the EFL181’s built-in 50A charger: full recovery from a working day
This is why a single lithium battery covers patterns that used to need a spare lead-acid battery and a changing station: the charger visits the schedule’s natural gaps.
The three-phase question, answered with numbers
The 60A and 100A chargers draw more than a single-phase circuit delivers continuously — they need a three-phase outlet near the parking spot. The EFL181’s built-in 50A charger is the exception in our fleet: it plugs into a single-phase 15A outlet (the larger-earth-pin socket, not a standard 10A power point — an electrician can add one cheaply if you don’t have it).
So the practical decision tree:
- No three-phase on site, no budget to install it → EFL181 is the machine that works today. Check with the Charging Readiness tool.
- Three-phase available → any model; pick by load and lift, not by power. The FitCheck tool does this against your real loads.
- Multi-shift, one machine → the 100A BYD chargers plus disciplined break-time charging, or the EFX5’s expandable 560Ah pack. We size this against your actual roster in the quote.
What we see on real sites
Most single-shift Melbourne operations never charge 0→100% during work hours at all: the machine goes on charge at knock-off and is full long before morning — even the “slow” 60A/280Ah pairing finishes in about five hours. Charge-time anxiety is almost always a multi-shift question, and it’s solved by charger amps and break discipline, not by waiting hours mid-shift.
If you want these numbers run against your own shift pattern, request a quote and include your hours in the notes — the written quote includes a charging plan, not just a price.