Comedian Jack Whitehall spends it like Beckham with investment in EV converter Lunaz
He’s been recycling his own material for years, he says
Comedian and actor Jack Whitehall has become the latest celebrity to throw his financial backing behind Lunaz, a company that converts luxury classic cars — and apparently bin lorries — to electric power by replacing their old internal combustion engines with electric powertrains.
Whitehall has invested through his green impact fund, following in the footsteps of former footballer David Beckham, who has also given his blessing to the Silverstone-based company.
The money will be used in Lunaz’s latest venture, which sees the company returning Biffa’s formerly diesel bin lorries to service as pure-electric vehicles (EVs).
Lunaz’s rubbish idea
Lunaz made its name by taking a variety of high end classic cars, such as Rolls-Royces, Aston Martins, Bentleys, Range Rovers and Jaguars, and giving them a new lease of life by fitting an electric powertrain, while also refurbishing their bodies and interiors. This is known in the car industry as an EV conversion, with a degree of “restomodding” thrown in.
However, perhaps because of the vehicle source material Lunaz is using this time, the company and Whitehall talk about “upcycling” Biffa’s old refuse lorries — although the process is the same.
Lunaz removes the trucks’ old diesel engines, fits a much more modern electric motor and then gives the whole bin lorry a lick of environmentally sound paint so that it can go back into service again.
The diesel engine and its ancillaries are carefully recycled, too, which means that not only does Biffa end up with a sparkling new zero-emission bin lorry at the end of the process, but Lunaz claims that 80 per cent — or 21 tonnes — of embedded carbon is saved from each truck during the process.
The Eiffel Tower of carbon reduction
That, says Lunaz — and it’s a point Whitehall makes in an accompanying video in which he announces his involvement in the scheme — means its factory is saving the equivalent weight of carbon as the Eiffel Tower, each and every year.
It’s not just the powertrain which gets upcycled, though. Lunaz restores all the plastics, inside and out of the lorries, to as-new condition, while it also replaces the old-fashioned cab interior and its analogue instruments with a snazzy new digital interface, made up of three large screens.
Lunaz is aiming for a global upscaling of this project to create what it calls upcycled EVs, or UEVs, and the backing of big names such as Whitehall and Beckham is crucial in raising the profile of the initiative.
Whitehall, for his part, said of both the programme and his associated video: “What’s not to love about the Lunaz proposition?
“Whether future-proofing the world’s best classic cars by making them electric or turning polluting trucks into state-of-the-art UEVs, they are making the planet a better place by reducing emissions and stopping perfectly good vehicles going to scrap.
“I’m proud to explain vehicle upcycling in this film to spread the word about the power of this innovative process, which supports the necessary switch from polluting vehicles to clean-air alternatives.”
Grown from five employees to 200 in five years
David Lorenz, the founder of Lunaz, added: “At Lunaz, we create UEVs of all types to save millions of tonnes in embedded carbon and reclaim billions of pounds in lost economic value by breaking the environmentally ruinous replace-with-new cycle.
“Our approach is something that resonated with Jack Whitehall and his green impact fund.
“This has been an extraordinary period of growth for Lunaz in our mission to upcycle and electrify vehicle fleets at scale. As part of Lunaz, Jack joins some of the world’s leading clean-tech investors, institutions, and technical talent on this company’s fast-growth trajectory.”
Lunaz’s primary business of EV-converting classic cars began in 2018 with five people. The workforce has since grown to 200, with planned expansion to 350 jobs within the next 12 months. It has worked on vehicles from five different classic marques in that time, with a strong order bank going forward, while the UEVs project is not only with Biffa but also many local government authorities.
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