Jack Whitehall explains how Lunaz makes upcycled EVs
British comedian, actor and writer, Jack Whitehall has presented a new video explaining the Lunaz upcycling and electrification process.
Jack Whitehall’s involvement in the company has been brought about through his green impact fund, joining the likes of the Barclays, Dellal and Reuben families and David Beckham in supporting the company.
Lunaz’s approach, which leverages the world’s existing car park of more than two billion vehicles, saves millions of tonnes in embedded carbon and reclaims billions of pounds in lost economic value compared with the environmentally and financially costly alternative of replacing end-of-life passenger and commercial vehicles with all-new alternatives.
The principles of vehicle upcycling are simple: Lunaz takes passenger and industrial vehicles that have reached the end of their life and, instead of sending them for scrap, undertakes a nut-and-bolt restoration, replaces their polluting internal combustion engine with a clean-air electric powertrain and performs a number of technological and wellbeing enhancements before pressing them back into service. These are known as Upcycled Electric Vehicles, or UEVs.
UEVs salvage up to 80% of the carbon embedded in the production of the vehicle’s raw materials and the emissions spent on its initial construction. As part of the upcycling and electrification process, Lunaz also dramatically improves the vehicle in terms of its equipment and comfort levels. Each upcycled vehicle is also warrantied as new and priced lower than an all-new equivalent, offering significant environmental and cost benefits to the end user.
Jack Whitehall said: “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.”
David Lorenz, founder of Lunaz, added: “At Lunaz we create Upcycled Electric Vehicles (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. In his film, he explains how Lunaz converts highly polluting vehicles like refuse trucks to electric power.
“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. Together, from a global network of upcycling campuses, we will rapidly realise the enormous potential of upcycling to plot a significantly more sustainable course to the urgently required transition to clean-air powertrains.”
To show that the upcycling process can be applied to vehicles of all types – even in the quality-sensitive super-luxury segment – Lunaz also elevates and electrifies the most celebrated classic cars. These include the Aston Martin DB6, Bentley Continental, Jaguar XK range, Range Rover Classic and Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud.
All Lunaz UEVs are upcycled on the company’s state-of-the-art upcycling campus in Silverstone Technology Park, United Kingdom. It is the world’s first facility designed for industrial vehicle upcycling, re-engineering and electrification at scale. It will serve as the permanent research and development hub for a global network of facilities that will facilitate the upcycling and electrification of global vehicle fleets at scale.