I’m out at the Makita booth talking with Mario, and he walked me through something that could be a legit game-changer for outdoor power and a bunch of other gas-driven equipment: Makita’s new 40V Max XGT brushless powerhead motor. The big idea is simple—instead of Makita building every niche machine from scratch (screeds, power trowels, backpack units, etc.), they’re building a bolt-on electric “powerhead” that OEM manufacturers can drop in where a small gas engine used to live. This is a B2B play, so you and I aren’t buying this motor off the shelf. Makita’s working directly with manufacturers—Marshalltown is one example—to adapt the motor to their tools. The bolt pattern is designed to match common Honda GX35/GX50 setups, and OEMs can customize things like switch location and RPM range to fit their product and user experience. The real advantage is the XGT platform: you’re leveraging the same slide-style 40V batteries that already run 170+ Makita tools. Early testing on a Marshalltown screed is showing up to 90 minutes on a single 8Ah battery—Mario said that’s more than a tank of gas on a GX35. Target is summer 2026 for integration, and Makita’s already talking about scaling it up for bigger engines down the road.