Forklift dealers already know how to rent equipment. The truck rental model is well-established: a customer needs a forklift for a project, a season, or a transition period, and the dealer provides it at a monthly rate with service included. The dealer earns recurring revenue, the customer avoids a capital commitment, and the relationship deepens.
Battery rental is the same logic applied to the single most important component in an electric forklift. And yet, most dealers have not added it to their lineup. The reason is straightforward: until now, the economics did not work.
With traditional lithium batteries — where every truck model requires a unique, purpose-built pack — a dealer who wants to offer rental has to stock dozens of specific battery formats, each one dedicated to a single truck type. When a rental unit comes back, it can only go out to the same type of truck. Capital sits idle. Utilization stays low. Margins disappear.
IBG’s modular platform changes that equation. And at $350 per month, the rental price point changes the sales conversation entirely.
Why Battery Rental Makes Sense Now
Three things have converged to make lithium battery rental viable for forklift dealers in a way it was not even two years ago.
First, the market is ready. The majority of new forklift sales are electric, and lithium is displacing lead-acid at an accelerating pace. But a significant number of operations have not made the switch, held back primarily by the upfront cost. These customers are not opposed to lithium — they are waiting for someone to make it affordable and low-risk. Rental does exactly that.
Second, the product architecture now supports it. IBG’s smart modular platform — standardized core modules that adapt to different trucks through low-cost steel housings — means a rental fleet does not require a unique battery for every truck on the floor. The same core units can be re-housed and redeployed across different customers and different truck formats. This fundamentally changes the inventory economics of rental.
Third, the price point is right. At $350 per month, IBG lithium rental lands at or below what most operations are already spending on lead-acid when you add up the actual total: battery rental or amortized replacement, watering labor, equalization, maintenance, acid cleanup, and the space cost of a ventilated battery room. The customer is not paying more for lithium — they are paying the same for a dramatically better experience.
How the Rental Model Works for Dealers
The IBG rental program is designed around the dealer channel. IBG does not rent directly to end-users. Dealers are the face of the rental relationship — they manage the customer agreement, handle delivery and installation, and provide local support. IBG supplies the product, the warranty, the remote diagnostics, and the technical backup.
Here is how the economics flow:
The dealer acquires IBG batteries at dealer pricing and rents them to end-user customers at $350 per month (or higher, depending on the application and local market). The spread between dealer acquisition cost and monthly rental revenue generates margin from month one — and because lithium batteries last 3,500+ cycles over a five-year-plus lifespan, the revenue stream extends far beyond the payback period on the initial investment.
When a rental agreement ends, the modular architecture means the core battery module — the cells, BMS, and electronics — can be extracted from its current housing, re-housed in a different steel enclosure, and deployed to the next customer’s truck. The expensive part of the battery stays in service. Only the low-cost housing changes. This is not theoretical — it is how the platform was designed to operate.
The result is a rental fleet with fundamentally better asset utilization than what any competitor using traditional purpose-built batteries can offer. Fewer core units serve more customers. Capital stays productive instead of sitting in format-specific inventory waiting for the right truck to show up.
No Capital? No Problem: IBG-Owned Rental in Select Markets
Not every dealer is ready to deploy capital into rental battery inventory — and IBG does not believe that should prevent them from offering rental to their customers.
In select major metropolitan markets, IBG maintains its own fleet of rental batteries. In this model, IBG owns the rental assets and the dealer earns a commission on every rental placed. The dealer still owns the customer relationship entirely — they handle delivery, installation, local support, and the day-to-day service experience. The only thing that changes is who holds the battery on the balance sheet.
For a dealer who sees rental demand from their customers but is not ready to invest in inventory, this is a way to start offering lithium rental immediately with zero capital outlay. The dealer earns recurring commission income, builds the customer relationship around lithium, and gains firsthand experience with the rental model — all without purchasing a single battery. If the dealer later decides to invest in their own rental fleet, the transition is straightforward: they already have the customers, the operational experience, and the IBG product knowledge.
Both models — dealer-owned and IBG-owned rental — are available simultaneously. A dealer in a qualifying market can use the IBG-owned fleet to serve customers today while building toward their own rental inventory over time, or they can choose to stay on the commission model indefinitely. There is no pressure to convert. The goal is to get lithium batteries into the field and give the dealer a path that works for their business, regardless of their capital position.
Contact us to discuss availability in your region.
What Rental Does for the Sales Conversation
Every forklift dealer has experienced the stalled lithium conversation. The customer is interested. They understand the benefits — no maintenance, full-shift power, stable voltage, longer life. They may even want to switch. But then they see the purchase price, and the conversation stops. The customer says they need to “think about it.” The deal goes quiet. Three months later, they buy another round of lead-acid batteries because that is what fits in this quarter’s budget.
Rental eliminates that dead end. At $350 per month, there is no capital outlay to approve. No budget cycle to navigate. No CFO sign-off required for a monthly operating expense at that level. The customer can start with one battery on one truck, see the performance with their own eyes, and scale from there.
For the customer who has never tried lithium, rental is the lowest-risk entry point that exists. For the customer who tried lithium before and got burned by a bad product or an absent supplier, rental says: “We are confident enough in this battery to let you try it at a monthly cost you can walk away from.”
For the dealer, rental transforms the economics of customer acquisition. A lead-acid battery sale is a one-time transaction that repeats every three to five years — if you are lucky enough to keep the customer. A lithium rental is a monthly revenue stream with a multi-year relationship built into it. The customer has no reason to shop around as long as the battery is performing and the service is responsive. Rental creates stickier customers and more predictable revenue.
Why Modular Architecture Is the Key to Rental Economics
This is the point most dealers have not heard from any other lithium battery supplier, because most suppliers cannot make it.
In a traditional lithium battery business, rental is a capital-intensive gamble. If you buy ten batteries for ten specific truck models and put them into rental, you need ten of those exact truck models to show up as customers. If customer demand shifts — if the next five requests are for a truck format you did not stock — five of your rental units sit idle while you scramble to order more.
IBG’s modular platform eliminates that problem. Because the core module is standardized and the housing is the only variable, a dealer’s rental inventory is not locked into specific truck formats. When a battery comes back from one customer’s Yale sit-down, the core module can be re-housed and deployed into the next customer’s Hyster reach truck, or their Raymond order picker, or their Crown pallet jack. The cells, BMS, and electronics — the parts that cost real money — stay in continuous productive use.
This means a dealer can serve a diverse customer base from a smaller pool of core units. Higher utilization per core unit means faster payback and better margins. Lower total inventory investment means less capital at risk. And the ability to reconfigure for different truck formats means the dealer can say “yes” to almost any rental request without waiting weeks for a factory order.
What a Rental Partnership with IBG Looks Like
If you are a forklift dealer evaluating whether to add lithium battery rental to your business, here is what the IBG partnership provides:
Product: Access to 800+ battery models built on the modular platform, with U.S.-based inventory and same-week shipping capability. Chemistry-agnostic chargers that work with both lithium and lead-acid, simplifying mixed-fleet management during the transition period.
Pricing: Dealer acquisition pricing that supports a profitable rental spread at the $350/month customer price point. Purchase option also available for customers who prefer to buy outright.
Warranty: Five years or 3,500 cycles, with tiered response — 24-hour remote diagnostics for expedited service, or 3–5 day on-site response through our service partner network. The warranty covers the battery through the rental lifecycle, not just the first owner.
Diagnostics: Every IBG battery transmits real-time performance data via cloud telemetry. The dealer and the customer both have visibility into exactly how the battery is performing. And IBG’s support team can diagnose issues remotely, often resolving problems before the customer calls.
Rental fleet support: Guidance on rental fleet sizing, core module configuration for your customer mix, and housing inventory planning. We help you build a rental program that is right-sized for your market, not a one-size-fits-all template.
And a manufacturer that does not compete with its dealers. IBG does not sell or rent directly to end-users. Your customer is your customer.
The Conversation That Closes Itself
Here is the simplest version of the rental pitch a dealer can make to any customer still running lead-acid:
“What are you spending per month on your batteries right now — including rental, watering, maintenance, and the money you set aside for the next replacement? If it is anywhere near $350, I can put a lithium battery in your truck tomorrow at that price, with zero maintenance, full-shift power, and a five-year warranty. If it does not perform, you are not stuck with it.”
That is a conversation that closes itself. And for the dealer, it opens a recurring revenue stream that grows with every customer who says yes.
If you are ready to add lithium battery rental to your business, IBG has the product, the pricing, and the partnership model to make it work.