38 January/February 2026 | E-Mobility Engineering Peter Donaldson explores the highlights from Detroit’s leading advanced battery and EV event in North America. Here, he tells us why Powering innovation Held at the Huntington Place exhibition centre in Detroit, Michigan, from October 6–9, 2025, The Battery Show North America brought together more than 21,000 attendees, 1300 suppliers and 150 speakers, providing an opportunity for the industry to peruse a wide range of new products including electric drivetrains, battery manufacturing and testing technology, thermal protection materials, adhesives and dispensing systems and more. Here is a selection of the attentiongrabbing offerings. Bonfiglioli presented its 601 F drive system, which is the result of a focused, decade-long evolution in electrifying counterbalance forklifts, according to electrical engineer Mattia Buscherini, the company’s North America e-mobility solutions sales manager. As part of the 600 F series, this system is engineered specifically for the demanding material handling market, with the 601 F model designed for forklifts with a lifting capacity of up to 2 metric tons. The core of the 601 F is a wheel hub design, where each wheel is powered by a dedicated gearbox and electric motor. A key technical challenge addressed is operational noise, critical for indoor warehouse environments. Bonfiglioli tackles this at the source: the gearbox’s first reduction stage. “The specific first reduction stage is a helical gear,” explains Buscherini, “and this allows the gear to have more surface area and so the noise level is lower.” These helical gears are further refined with a super-finished machining process to enhance quality and further reduce acoustic emissions. System integration is another cornerstone of the design. Bonfiglioli designs and manufactures both the gearbox and the AC induction motor, which makes it easier to achieve a compact, optimised solution. This control over the entire drive allows for precise management of tolerances and design features, resulting in a quiet and highly efficient system, Buscherini notes. A significant differentiator is the placement of the parking brake. Here, Bonfiglioli departs from the de facto A few of the 21,000 attendees on the exhibit floor of the Huntington Place exhibition centre in Detroit (Image: Informa Markets)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mzk4