ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT The Mack MD Electric is produced at the same factory as its ICE-powered counterpart. Mack displayed the production version of the MD Electric at NTEA's Work Truck Week in Indianapolis. at Mack Trucks, on the show floor at Work Truck Week and discussed some of the design details of the MD Electric as well as overall customer reception to the truck's performance. " The first thing they tend to notice is how quiet the truck is, " Barraclough said. " The other aspect our customers love is the performance off the line. There's no waiting for the torque converter to catch up or the turbo to spool. You just hit the pedal and you're off. Our customers really love that. " Barraclough also discussed the development process from prototype to production and some of the unique features of the MD Electric. " We really didn't have many major changes from prototype to production, " he said. " Mostly tweaking the regen and how that performs and other minor software changes. " Barraclough pointed out the E-PTO TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING as one of the most important features of the MD Electric. " The E-PTO is a necessity for trucks like these and is very important to our customers, " he said. " We needed to provide that capability so that they could run smaller hydraulic devices. It's a little different concept than a PTO on a combustion truck because that will mount to the transmission, which obviously we do not have on a battery-electric truck. " Barraclough also affirmed Mack's decision to outsource the powertrain of the MD Electric. " We have our own in-house solution powering our LR Electric (www. sae.org/news/2021/12/mack-begins-production-of-lr-electric-truck), but this is a different animal, " he stressed. " We felt that this system was a better fit and offered a turnkey solution that would allow faster time to market with a proven powertrain solution. " Matt Wolfe April 2024 29 FROM TOP: MACK TRUCKS; SAE/MATT WOLFEhttp://info.hotims.com/86280-709 http://www.sae.org/news/2021/12/mack-begins-pro-duction-of-lr-electric-truck http://www.sae.org/news/2021/12/mack-begins-pro-duction-of-lr-electric-truck http://www.sae.org/news/2021/12/mack-begins-pro-duction-of-lr-electric-truck