Rental Energy Technology Report 2025: Q&A with Tyler Ricketts of Honda

Tyler Ricketts, assistant supervisor, software engineering, Honda Engines, American Honda Motor Co. Inc., shares his perception into the small engine phase of kit rental. 

Rental linked with Ricketts in Could 2025. 

Q. What’s the state of small engines on this nation? How has California’s ban on small engines affected the business?

Tyler Ricketts, American Honda Motor Co. Inc.American Honda Motor Firm Inc.Following the pandemic, we noticed a surge in demand as clients replenished stock, adopted by a quick interval of normalization. At the moment, market circumstances have stabilized. As for California’s small engine regulation, the postponed implementation to 2026 has restricted any speedy affect. Moreover, a lot of the gear powered by our gas-powered GX Sequence is exempt from the regulation, which has additional mitigated disruption.

Going ahead, a number of the gear that you simply see for rental and industrial is exempt due to a federal exemption.

The gist of what I get from what California’s making an attempt to do is to take engines out of the hand of the overall shopper. By the [EPA] exemptions for instance, if somebody is pouring concrete utilizing a trowel powered by a Honda engine in California, it’s nonetheless exempt after 2026 for development. Provided that the Honda GX engine lives predominantly in exempt classes, we do not actually really feel like we’ll have a number of ache when the regulation is available in.

Q. Small engines are nonetheless a serious a part of gear rental. What have been the largest updates affecting rental shops for his or her small engine belongings?

Rental and industrial customers prioritize reliability and runtime, and presently, inside combustion engines (ICE) stay essentially the most sensible answer for a lot of purposes. In response to rising curiosity in electrification, Honda launched the eGX platform as a drop-in answer suitable with current GX-powered frames. Whereas the preliminary enthusiasm was excessive, broader adoption has been restricted as a result of runtime and price challenges. That mentioned, area of interest purposes — equivalent to rammers and plate compactors — have seen profitable integration of battery-electric options.

We’re slowly beginning to see a transition in the direction of gasoline injection — although it will not be adopted as broadly as vehicles or bikes. What we see in gear is “if it ain’t broke, do not repair it” — that’s predominantly very sturdy within the gear world.

What we’re listening to from clients is that they need one thing extra environment friendly. They need [equipment] with higher runtime, but in addition have to take care of what they have already got. 

Q. How have fashionable small engines made upkeep simpler for rental outlets?

One of many main upkeep challenges for rental fleets has been carburetor-related points, particularly as a result of high quality of right now’s gasoline and gear storage patterns. To handle this, Honda has more and more applied gasoline injection expertise throughout our product strains. Gas injection considerably reduces widespread fuel-related issues and contributes to extra constant engine efficiency, notably in seasonal or sometimes used gear.

Q. How has Honda responded to the incorporation of electrical gear? 

Introduced in June 2021, the Honda eGX is a lithium-ion battery-powered motor designed to be integrated into industrial OEM energy gear merchandise for indoor and outside use.American Honda Motor Firm, Inc.,About two years in the past, we noticed a push from the large entities in rental — United, Hercs, and so forth. — saying “we want to go electrical” and “give us extra electrical.” At Honda, we have been forward of it with the launch of the Honda eGX, a battery-electric energy plant. Once we talked to clients, they mentioned they needed one thing that they may drop into their body straight instead of the present GX engine so they may have restricted engineering and upfront prices to undertake battery electrical. That is what we did. 

The most important factor that got here again to us was the runtime. It doesn’t matter what, with the expertise proper now, you simply cannot match the runtime of an engine. By that exercise, we noticed some area of interest purposes the place battery-electric completely works. It really works in handheld, for certain, and a number of the small stuff that we see in development that’s all handheld has gone battery-powered.

However the first eGX product that we made was the equal of a GX100 or GX120 class engine — you continue to cannot get the runtime, the burden, the ability, and the fee simply wasn’t there. Now, the rental business has type of pulled again. They’ve realized that for this to be viable, it must have the identical, or near the identical, runtime because the engine. We’re simply not there but.

Q. What rules ought to rental corporations concentrate on proper now? 

We’re all the time leery if there shall be an EPA revision based mostly on what California Air Assets Board (CARB) is doing. They [CARB] went all-in, however we do not count on EPA to utterly comply with go well with. Nonetheless, we do imagine there in all probability shall be an EPA revision. We’re simply undecided when it is going occur.

To not be too political, and never associated to rental, nevertheless it looks as if there’s a number of issues occurring with the EPA proper now,—for example, with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or ceaselessly chemical compounds). PFAS is a giant factor the place they’re investing a number of manpower, and it retains getting pushed again. We do not see something straight on the horizon proper now associated to small engines, however engineering-wise, we’re all the time planning on there being one other revision to EPA.

Q. What are the most recent modifications for Honda?

Honda stays dedicated to the setting and innovation, allocating sources to advance each inside combustion engine (ICE) and battery-electric (BE) applied sciences. We acknowledge that electrification will play a rising function within the business and proceed to evolve our choices accordingly. On the identical time, we stay deeply invested in ICE, offering sturdy, environment friendly, and high-performance engines that serve a variety {of professional} purposes.

The brand new product that we’ve got been showcasing is Honda’s first general-purpose, single cylinder, engine that’s gasoline injected and has an digital governor. Not solely do you get the efficiencies from the gasoline injection, having the digital governor makes a giant distinction additionally in how the engine operates and its effectivity.

Q. What can we count on on the horizon?

We not too long ago presentcased the Honda iGX400 and iGX430 globally, our first single-cylinder basic function engines to mix digital gasoline injection with our superior STR governor system. This marks a big step in expertise integration for our phase. Moreover, we unveiled the eGX6.0, which expands our battery-electric lineup with larger output and prolonged runtimes. Trying additional forward, Honda additionally has commercialized hydrogen gasoline cell modules, which we imagine maintain sturdy potential for powering bigger gear within the close to future.

We imagine that there’s a future in electrical, and we’re persevering with to evolve electrical. Globally, we confirmed an even bigger battery-electric energy plant [than the eGX 2.0] that we showcased as an idea throughout Bauma 2025. 

Additionally, even when it is not in our [small engine] subject directly, Honda is commercializing hydrogen gasoline cells for greater gear.

Q. Any last ideas for rental corporations?

Because the gear panorama continues to evolve, Honda stays dedicated to supporting rental professionals with dependable, forward-thinking energy options that meet the calls for of right now and tomorrow.

And we’re additionally dedicated to the setting and innovation. We’re not simply an engine producer, we’re an influence unit producer. Our long-term purpose is to have a diversified portfolio of how we’re creating energy. 

Whether or not it is ICE, battery, or hydrogen, we’re persevering with to innovate these applied sciences.