It would have made perfect sense to position the batteries right in that cavernous empty space, from where the heavy engine had been removed, but Matthews explains: “Ideally, we would have loved to do that, but unfortunately at the time, nobody had a battery pack with the dimensions to fit in that space. “When there are batteries that fit, they will go there, but right now they are positioned right behind where the transmission engine used to be located, sitting right underneath the cab. As a result of that positioning, the weight distribution has not changed very much; we only shifted a couple of hundred pounds front to back.” Weight-saving innovation Just as BAE Systems was building out the concept for its electrification solution, the company whose truck the team had decided to use as a demonstrator revealed its own design, the Freightliner eM2, with Class 6/7 options that delivered ranges of 180 miles or 250 miles, respectively. One of the first to market, Freightliner began delivering the eM2 to existing customers for real-world testing in late 2018, and Matthews reveals: “You’d think we would have spent more time looking at that to try and get ideas but we actually didn’t. It was too early; they weren’t really available and there was not a lot of information out there.” Despite the two solutions’ independent development, it turned out that they were very similar when it came to motor and battery specification and positioning – but when it came to weight, there was a substantial difference. “We were running almost 2000 pounds lighter with the same energy, more torque and more power,” says Matthews. In a like-for-like comparison, BAE Systems’ compact, modular design used far fewer components, cables and connections – 69 parts compared to 145 – resulting in an approximate 50% reduction and a simplified integration process. “That was our argument from the beginning,” Matthews concludes. “Using fewer boxes is far lighter and simpler!” The focus on simplified ancillaries and control components aligns with this system’s other important innovation – the modular approach taken to the EV components themselves, with the number of batteries and accessories and the types of motors easily adapted within the design to suit the end product. Matthews explains: “Different trucks have different requirements so they need to be able to deliver on those in the most efficient way. When we are electrifying buses, there are a couple of sizes and after that, pretty much a bus is a bus. When you get into trucks, there are all sorts of different bodies, accessories and duty cycles. “It needs a ‘one-size-fits-many’ rather than a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and that made the modularity a big part of it. You have a basic core, then if you’ve got a cement truck that needs extra power, for example, you can add in what it needs. We developed a simple spec for a base Class 6, Class 7 and Class 8 and from that it’s all very configurable.” Traction, motor and gearbox Although buses and trucks may be similar in weight, their operational modes and performance criteria require very different drivetrain solutions. Matthews explains: “On our transit system, we use a big single motor with direct drive because buses don’t go that fast; The reduction in complexity of components reduces the overall vehicle weight – achieving major improvements relative to competitors The in-house BAE Systems’ GPM-5 motor sits at the heart of the Class 6/7 set-up 23 E-Mobility Engineering | January/February 2026
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