Today, Lunaz Applied Technologies have announced the establishment of its expanded upcycling campus at Silverstone Technology Park, Northamptonshire. The state-of-the-art upcycling and electrification plant, the first of its kind in the world, adds 140,000 square feet to the company’s existing facilities.
This quadruples Lunaz’ industrial vehicles remanufacturing and electrification footprint. Additionally, it creates additional production space for Lunaz, which upcycles diesel-powered industrial vehicles, such as recycling trucks, by restoring them to full electric power.
These upcycled electric vehicles (EVs) also incorporate significant safety, connectivity and ergonomic improvements. This empowers fleet operators and local authorities to progress towards net-zero emissions and improve the well-being of the drivers and crew who operate these critical vehicles.
LAT’s expanded upcycling campus is the first facility of this kind in the world to focus purely on the upcycling, re-engineering and electrification of industrial vehicles at scale. This expansion confirms Lunaz as a global leader in the rapidly expanding clean-tech sector.
David Lorenz, Lunaz founder, said: “This landmark project represents a huge step forward for Lunaz Applied Technologies and the wider drive towards clean-air mobility.
“We have dramatically expanded our upcycling campus in Silverstone, Northamptonshire, in response to market sentiment, and the clear and growing demand for upcycled electric vehicles (UEVs).”
The new upcycling and electrification industry responds to the pressing need to find more ecologically viable and cost-effective solutions to transition the more than two billion vehicles that currently exist to clean-air powertrains. This is in the wake of aggressive legislation to ban the sale of new Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles globally within the next decade.
In expanding its upcycling campus, Lunaz will create more than 300 new jobs. The company is also actively recruiting across both manufacturing and electric vehicle sectors to support its growth. Lunaz now ranks as one of the fast-growing companies in Britain, with investors including Frederic Wakeman, Reuben, Barclay and Dallal families, David Beckham and Brendan Iribe.
As well as supporting Europe’s largest fleet operators and several authorities around Britain in achieving their net-zero efforts, LAT has invested in technology to reduce its own environmental footprint.
The new upcycling campus will be highly thermally efficient and use heating powered by sustainably-generated electricity. All tools used by production experts will be battery-operated and vehicle ramps will be fitted with a kinetic energy recovery system to minimise power usage.
When repurposed into upcycled electric vehicles, these end-of-life vehicles are cleaner, less expensive and better equipped than their all-new equivalents. This will help fleet operators and authorities reach their net-zero goals.
Independent research commissioned by Lunaz shows that upcycling a vehicle saves over 80 percent of its lifetime embedded carbon when compared to replacing a vehicle with an all-new equivalent.
Lorenz added: “We’re backing our own technology, processes and people, and making a powerful statement of intent for our vision of Lunaz Applied Technologies (LAT); it’s also a renewed vote of confidence from us and our investors in the UK as our chosen long-term location for LAT’s manufacturing and R&D activities.
“This development will enable us to unlock the vast potential of UEV technology to break the replace-with-new cycle and bring us ever closer to carbon neutrality.”