Rental Power Generation Report 2025: Q&A with Tyler Ricketts of Honda

Tyler Ricketts, assistant manager, application engineering, Honda Engines, American Honda Motor Co. Inc., shares his insight into the small engine segment of equipment rental. 

Rental connected with Ricketts in May 2025. 

Q. What is the state of small engines in this country? How has California’s ban on small engines affected the industry?

Tyler Ricketts, American Honda Motor Co. Inc.American Honda Motor Company Inc.Following the pandemic, we observed a surge in demand as customers replenished inventory, followed by a brief period of normalization. Currently, market conditions have stabilized. As for California’s small engine regulation, the postponed implementation to 2026 has limited any immediate impact. Additionally, much of the equipment powered by our gas-powered GX Series is exempt from the regulation, which has further mitigated disruption.

Going forward, a lot of the equipment that you see for rental and commercial is exempt because of a federal exemption.

The gist of what I get from what California’s trying to do is to take engines out of the hand of the general consumer. By the [EPA] exemptions for example, if someone is pouring concrete using a trowel powered by a Honda engine in California, it’s still exempt after 2026 for construction. Given that the Honda GX engine lives predominantly in exempt categories, we don’t really feel like we’re going to have a lot of pain when the regulation comes in.

Q. Small engines are still a major part of equipment rental. What have been the biggest updates affecting rental stores for their small engine assets?

Rental and commercial users prioritize reliability and runtime, and currently, internal combustion engines (ICE) remain the most practical solution for many applications. In response to growing interest in electrification, Honda introduced the eGX platform as a drop-in solution compatible with existing GX-powered frames. While the initial enthusiasm was high, broader adoption has been limited due to runtime and cost challenges. That said, niche applications — such as rammers and plate compactors — have seen successful integration of battery-electric solutions.

We’re slowly starting to see a transition towards fuel injection — though it won’t be adopted as widely as cars or motorcycles. What we see in equipment is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” — that is predominantly very strong in the equipment world.

What we’re hearing from customers is that they want something more efficient. They want [equipment] with better runtime, but also have to maintain what they already have. 

Q. How have modern small engines made maintenance easier for rental shops?

One of the primary maintenance challenges for rental fleets has been carburetor-related issues, especially due to the quality of today’s fuel and equipment storage patterns. To address this, Honda has increasingly implemented fuel injection technology across our product lines. Fuel injection significantly reduces common fuel-related problems and contributes to more consistent engine performance, particularly in seasonal or infrequently used equipment.

Q. How has Honda responded to the incorporation of electric equipment? 

Announced in June 2021, the Honda eGX is a lithium-ion battery-powered motor designed to be incorporated into commercial OEM power equipment products for indoor and outdoor use.American Honda Motor Company, Inc.,About two years ago, we saw a push from the big entities in rental — United, Hercs, etc. — saying “we want to go electric” and “give us more electric.” At Honda, we were ahead of it with the launch of the Honda eGX, a battery-electric power plant. When we talked to customers, they said they wanted something that they could drop into their frame directly in place of the existing GX engine so they could have limited engineering and upfront costs to adopt battery electric. That’s what we did. 

The biggest thing that came back to us was the runtime. No matter what, with the technology right now, you just can’t match the runtime of an engine. By that activity, we saw some niche applications where battery-electric absolutely works. It works in handheld, for sure, and a lot of the small stuff that we see in construction that is all handheld has gone battery-powered.

But the first eGX product that we made was the equivalent of a GX100 or GX120 class engine — you still can’t get the runtime, the weight, the power, and the cost just wasn’t there. Now, the rental industry has kind of pulled back. They’ve realized that for this to be viable, it needs to have the same, or close to the same, runtime as the engine. We’re just not there yet.

Q. What regulations should rental companies be aware of right now? 

We’re always leery if there will be an EPA revision based on what California Air Resources Board (CARB) is doing. They [CARB] went all-in, but we don’t expect EPA to completely follow suit. However, we do believe there probably will be an EPA revision. We’re just not sure when it’s going happen.

Not to be too political, and not related to rental, but it seems like there’s a lot of things going on with the EPA right now,—as an example, with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or forever chemicals). PFAS is a big thing where they’re investing a lot of manpower, and it keeps getting pushed back. We don’t see anything directly on the horizon right now related to small engines, but engineering-wise, we are always planning on there being another revision to EPA.

Q. What are the latest changes for Honda?

Honda remains committed to the environment and innovation, allocating resources to advance both internal combustion engine (ICE) and battery-electric (BE) technologies. We recognize that electrification will play a growing role in the industry and continue to evolve our offerings accordingly. At the same time, we remain deeply invested in ICE, providing durable, efficient, and high-performance engines that serve a wide range of professional applications.

The new product that we have been showcasing is Honda’s first general-purpose, single cylinder, engine that is fuel injected and has an electronic governor. Not only do you get the efficiencies from the fuel injection, having the electronic governor makes a big difference also in how the engine operates and its efficiency.

Q. What can we expect on the horizon?

We recently showcased the Honda iGX400 and iGX430 globally, our first single-cylinder general purpose engines to combine electronic fuel injection with our advanced STR governor system. This marks a significant step in technology integration for our segment. Additionally, we unveiled the eGX6.0, which expands our battery-electric lineup with higher output and extended runtimes. Looking further ahead, Honda also has commercialized hydrogen fuel cell modules, which we believe hold strong potential for powering larger equipment in the near future.

We believe that there is a future in electric, and we’re continuing to evolve electric. Globally, we showed a bigger battery-electric power plant [than the eGX 2.0] that we showcased as a concept during Bauma 2025. 

Also, even if it’s not in our [small engine] field directly, Honda is commercializing hydrogen fuel cells for bigger equipment.

Q. Any final thoughts for rental companies?

As the equipment landscape continues to evolve, Honda remains committed to supporting rental professionals with reliable, forward-thinking power solutions that meet the demands of today and tomorrow.

And we’re also committed to the environment and innovation. We’re not just an engine manufacturer, we’re a power unit manufacturer. Our long-term goal is to have a diversified portfolio of how we’re creating power. 

Whether it’s ICE, battery, or hydrogen, we’re continuing to innovate those technologies.