Mark D’Amato, vice president of sales, says the company is “busting out at the seams” right now at its Santa Ana and Irvine locations. The company, currently based in Irvine, will be consolidating into a much larger new facility in Garden Grove as it plans to expand its manufacturing workforce from more than 40 employees now to roughly 60.
“We’re having the best quarter that we’ve ever had right now,” he told the Business Journal on March 31.
He said he expected the move to Garden Grove take place within the next two to three months. “It’s going crazy this year.”
And in case you haven’t given much thought to the key role of those ungainly-looking forklifts, consider the following from D’Amato, who calls them an “economic indicator” pointing to a more growth following the pandemic.
“Forklifts are essential to the trucking industry overall, logistics, shipping etc. and warehousing that happens along the way from manufacturing—whether it’s food processing or goods we all use daily,” he said.
“We were the last to feel the COVID downturn and the first to pick up this year.”
Less Downtime
Marketing Director Maxim Khabur adds that lithium-ion batteries lead to higher efficiency and better utilization of forklifts.
“With lithium-ion batteries there is less downtime for charging and changing of the batteries, and zero daily maintenance,” says Khabur. He says they are also cheaper than lead-acid batteries when all factors are taken into consideration.
“So, the demand is a combination of the two—more forklifts needed with an increasing trend to switch to the new lithium batteries,” according to Khabur.
The company says its lithium-ion batteries are tailored to forklifts’ use in a wide range of industries, including food and beverage; paper, pulp, and forest products; industrial manufacturing; distribution and logistics; retail; consumer goods; and utilities.
OneCharge’s new facility in Garden Grove is just shy of 50,000 square feet, more than double the total size of its two current locations in Irvine and Santa Ana.
Enevate, esVolta
OC is home to numerous other battery and battery tech companies.
They include Irvine-based Enevate, an Irvine-based company developing silicon lithium-ion batteries technology for electric vehicles, that said in February it had secured $81 million in Series E funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Co.
Aliso Viejo-based esVolta takes excess electricity from utility companies,
Garden Grove is also home to Battery Systems Inc., which calls itself the “the largest independent battery distributor in the U.S.”
Cleaner energy sources such as batteries are expected to get a boost from President Joe Biden’s climate goals as the administration pushes for more electric vehicles.
