The invention discloses a low-resolution coder position calculating method for an electric forklift. The method includes following steps: step 1, setting a fixed calculating period, measuring pulse number in each calculating period, measuring time between a last pulse time moment in the calculation period and a finishing time moment of the calculation period, and acquiring a rotating angle of a rotor in the current calculating period according to a measuring result through an algorithm, namely actual measuring position of the rotor; step 2, adopting a phase-locked loop method, and calculating rotating speed according to the rotating angle of the rotor in each calculating period through a phase-locked loop adjuster. Deviation compensation is performed on the actual measuring position according to orthogonal error information, so that errors caused by signal non-orthogonality of an incremental coder are reduced, accurate rotor position information is acquired finally, position measuring deviation can be reduced, and speed calculation errors are reduced; the algorithm is simple and uncomplicated to realize, hardware design does not need to be changed, and control performance of the forklift is improved.