Equity and Debt Investments (Policies)	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2020
Consolidation, Variable Interest Entity, Policy [Policy Text Block]	The Company maintains an interest in one variable interest entity, HYGFS. HYGFS is a joint venture with WF formed primarily for the purpose of providing financial services to independent Hyster^® and Yale^® lift truck dealers and National Account customers in the United States and is included in the Americas segment. The Company does not have a controlling financial interest or have the power to direct the activities that most significantly affect the economic performance of HYGFS. Therefore, the Company is not the primary beneficiary and uses the equity method to account for its 20% interest in HYGFS. The Company does not consider its variable interest in HYGFS to be significant.

Disclosure of accounting policy for consolidation to describe the significant judgments and assumptions made in determining whether a variable interest held by the entity requires the variable interest entity to be consolidated and (or) disclose information about its involvement with the variable interest entity; the methodology used by the entity for determining whether or not it is the primary beneficiary of the variable interest entity; and the significant factors considered and judgments made in determining that the power to direct the activities that significantly impact the economic performance of the variable interest entity are shared (as defined).

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 810
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 4
-Subparagraph (e)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121559654&loc=d3e5728-111685

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 810
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 5A
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-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121559654&loc=SL6759159-111685

Reference 3: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 235
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
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-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84158767&loc=d3e18780-107790

Reference 4: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 810
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2AA
-Subparagraph a
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121559654&loc=SL6759068-111685

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