Minnesota manufacturers join electric power bandwagon

It's not merely the auto industry turning electric.

Minnesota manufacturers of consumer products and professional vehicles are converting them to electric power, away from gas and oil. And they're encountering the same tradeoffs seen for cars and trucks.

Battery-powered devices don't emit polluting gases. But they must be recharged, and that adds a time consideration that influences the usefulness of some products.

For the recreational vehicles of Winnebago Industries, located in Eden Prairie, the volume of battery power necessary for a cross-country trip isn't yet economical. However the company is creating a market for battery-run RVs with medical clinics, libraries and other businesses that may utilize them for relatively short distances.

For the yard equipment at Bloomington-based Toro, the demand and recharge equation makes greater sense and the conversion to battery power is well underway.

Beyond products, the transition to energy gives companies a chance to progress on broader sustainability goals, including those tied to climate change.

"Our carbon footprint, a large proportion, is the utilization of our equipment by our customers," said David Strohsack, vice president of global marketing at Tennant. "So for all of us to reduce our carbon footprint, among the single biggest levers is to make our equipment better."

Some critics of the gasoline-to-electric power conversion argue that consumers are substituting one sort of polluting energy for another, because a lot of the nation's electricity is generated by coal or gas.

Even so, manufacturers give attention to what they are able to control, such as making devices that charge successfully and hold battery charges given that they are able to. Here is a rundown of what's happening at five large Minnesota manufacturers.

Tennant

Eden Prairie-based Tennant Co. has electric options across its lineup of commercial and commercial cleaning equipment, from small vacuums to ride-on sweepers.

"The energy density and runtime of battery continues to expand, that allows us to keep to expand our portfolio where we offer a full battery option," Strohsack said.

Tennant is making a few of its equipment autonomous. It has several autonomous professional robotic floor scrubbers, which are being used in commercial settings like food markets.

Those scrubbers do need some human interaction, but Tennant aims to limit that to save the time and costs of its customers.

Traditionally, Tennant built bigger scubbers to complete the job faster therefore the person on top who is running it can have significantly more time. But with machines that run by themselves, smaller is in because small machines don't need as much supervision.

Polaris

Polaris Inc., located in Medina, includes a history of making electric vehicles. In 2011, it acquired Global Electric Motorcars LLC (GEM), a manufacturer of premium electric-powered vehicles for the low-speed vehicle market and Goupil, a maker of on-road light-duty commercial electric vehicles.

Last September, executives said these were likely to amp up the electric strategy, that they called rEV'd up. They formed a 10-year exclusive partnership with Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Zero Motorcycles to build up electric off-road vehicles and snowmobiles using Zero's powertrain technology, hardware and software.

Polaris recently said its first product under the partnership with Zero will be anall-new 2022 electric utility side-by-side that may be available in late December. "This will be the most technically advanced off-road vehicles out there," Mike Donoughe, the business's chief technical officer, said when it was announced.

In March, Polaris announced another partnership, teaming up with Boston-based Optimus Rideto develop fully-autonomous electric-powered vehicles that are aimed at corporate and academic campuses.

Toro

Toro is a lot further ahead than various other manufacturers on the proliferation of electric power in its mix of lawn mowers and other products. In addition, it has examined a variety of hybrid, bio-fuels and other technologies.

"We are focused on developing electric products that offer both power and strength without compromise on performance," Toro's leader, Rick Olson, told analysts on its latest quarterly earnings call.

As well as the lower-emission and clean-air benefits connected with battery-powered devices, they are also quieter to operate. That's beneficial for golf course and turf managers who like to get out and mow early each morning or operate close to homes and businesses throughout the day.

Toro has electric fairway and greens mowers, Greensmaster e1021 walk greensmower, a 60V commercial walk behind mower, and an e-Dingo compact utility loader for indoor construction work. Its Workman GTX series of golf utility vehicles comes in gas, lead-acid battery powered, and a just released lithium-Ion battery powered version.

St. Andrews DRIVER in Scotland recently purchased more of Toro's electric offerings, including two new electric green mowers and six 3360 eTriFlex hybrid green mowers.

The rise of electric and hybrid options means Toro had to supplement its mechanical engineering talent with more electrical and software engineers.

Toro also has an increasingly popular line of residential products that count on a 60-volt rechargeable lithium-ion battery which can be swapped between devices. The Flex-Force interchangeable battery can be utilised in string-trimmer, hedge clipper, chainsaw and even a 22 inch lawn mower. Toro this winter will roll out a two-stage snowblower that uses the same battery.

In its latest quarterly results, Olson said the Flex-Force battery-powered products helped drive a 20% sales increase because of its residential business segment.

Donaldson

Bloomington-based Donaldson is well known for air filters for trucks and heavy equipment. But among its sections is increasingly developing services for electric vehicles.

One of the latest helps the large sealed electric vehicle battery packs have a longer life. The Donaldson product reduces pressure differences within the battery since it undergoes various operating conditions and environments. It allows pressure to equalize without letting in outside contaminants.

"Our occurrence within the automotive market keeps growing with the EV products. As well as the battery vents, we likewise have a type of powertrain vents on e-motors and e-axels," a Donaldson spokesperson said.

Winnebago Industries

The power tradeoff doesn't work aswell for recreational vehicles since it does for sedans and SUVs. But Winnebago Industries does have an all-electric platform that since 2018 has been aimed at customers with short-range commercial needs.

The vehicles hold enough charge for eight hours of use and a range of up to 125 miles. Some have already been used for mobile medical clinics, bloodmobiles, bookmobiles and mobile classrooms.

Winnebago continues to enhance the off-grid capacities of its RVs through the application of lithium ion batteries to run various subsystems, mostly on its Class B motorhomes.

"This sort of capability will be essential continue because we continue steadily to see that normal RVs are starting to visit a lot of places where even gasoline stations don't exist, aside from electric charging infrastructure," said Winnebago spokesman Sam Jefson.