Mack Academy opens new facility

The facility in Illinois aims to support battery electric vehicle training.

mack academy training facility
The Mack Academy recently opened a new facility in Tinley Park, Illinois to better support provide dealers and customers with easier access to training in the central U.S. Pictured is the Mack Anthem model at the facility.
Mack Trucks

Mack Trucks, headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, has announced its Mack Academy opened a facility in Tinley Park, Illinois, to support battery electric vehicle (BEV) training and provide dealers and customers with easier access to training in the central United States.

The Mack Academy signed a seven-year lease (with an option to renew) for a 14,865-square-foot facility in Tinley Park, located in a manufacturing park outside Chicago. The company says the new location is "newer, larger and more modern" than its previous site in Joliet, Illinois.

"The Tinley Park Mack Academy is located in a central location so that dealers and customers needing training can easily travel to the facility," Mack Academy Senior Manager of Operations Scott Behe says. "It is in close proximity to both O'Hare and Midway airports, and the facility is about 5,500 square feet bigger than our previous location, so it fulfills our need for more space for BEV-specific training."

Mack says BEV coursework at Tinley Park is focused on BEV safety training, operation, repair and sales, with other courses including diesel training such as engine overhaul, transmission design and function and parts sales and warranty fundamentals. The facility has two full-time trainers and offers technical training sessions up to four times per day, and features meeting spaces so classes are not disrupted by technician training.

The Mack Trucks Academy has six training locations throughout the U.S. and Canada, including Allentown, Pennsylvania; Atlanta; Grand Prairie, Texas; and Toronto.

Mack's first fully electric Class 8 vehicle, the Mack LR Electric, is available for order and the company says it's supported by dealers and training facilities in various locations across the U.S. According to the company, it features 42 percent more energy and a standard 376 kWh total battery capacity, offering increased range compared with the first generation LR Electric.

The latest version also has twin electric motors and offers 448 continuous horsepower and 4,051 pound per foot of peak output torque from zero RPM. It has a two-speed Mack Powershift transmission, Mack mRide suspension and its proprietary s462R 46,000-pound rear axles.

Mack recently announced the sale of four LR Electric collection trucks to three different cities: Ocala, Florida, purchased two vehicles; Miami-Dade County purchased one; and Santa Cruz, California purchased one for its sanitation fleet.

The LR Electric is produced at the Mack Lehigh Valley Operations facility in Pennsylvania, where the company says all Mack Class 8 models for North America and export are assembled.