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The electrification of classic cars creates more controversy than any part of the EV revolutionand it is one of the most controversial conversions of all Rolls Lunaz on Royce phantom. But while premium icons like these make the headlines, Lunaz’s broader target is more mainstream. I spoke with Founder and CEO David Lorenz about how Lunaz hopes to accelerate electrification in commercial vehicles.
“We have started with the Mercedes Econic platform, which is one of the biggest selling trucks of its kind in Europe,” says Lorenz. “But it has countless applications.” The first of these that Lunaz is focusing on is litter collection. “We are also looking at other areas, such as the mining industry, where they have special equipment, which is better to re-engineer than to build a new one.”
“We’re looking at specialized equipment that has duty cycles that we can really understand,” Lorenz explains. “It’s all about tailoring a duty cycle to the needs of a fleet operator. That’s where you can reduce the cost of the transition from internal combustion to the EV.” Electric vehicles are widely criticized by service providers for their limited range and much slower recharging than fossil fuel recharging. But a commercial vehicle like a garbage truck can have a very accurate daily distance estimate, so the battery size can be adjusted to meet needs exactly.
“The reason I went into the garbage sector in the first place is that when you look at the matrix of all commercial vehicles, garbage trucks drive between 27 and 75 miles a day,” says Lorenz. “It’s a very small duty cycle, which means we’ve made a very modular battery system, so you can scale back. We have made a six-pack system, which is a 20-minute interchange. You can buy a vehicle with a smaller battery pack. This is really where the education piece needs to happen with the operators. You have to worry about the scope and address the real need of this duty cycle.”
“We’re trying to reduce the size of the vehicles in terms of battery pack size so, for example, if you do 25 miles a day, we specify that route pack,” says Lorenz. “We do a lot of analysis of each operator’s fleet. We then specify which vehicles are right for the routes, and then we take a more tailored approach than an OEM does.” An OEM will tend to produce a “one size fits all” product in their factory, which will be the same whether it is for 20 or 150 miles.
But Lunaz’s classic conversions remain its main drag products. “Lunaz, as a brand, is the legacy of some of the most incredible marks ever produced,” says Lorenz. “He’s respecting what was in the car and bringing it back to factory new.” Lunaz has recently been working on the restoration of a 1961 Bentley S2 Continental. “That Bentley Continental is now going to be a very good car to drive, that a lot of people will enjoy. Classic cars make everyone smile, brighten everyone’s day, and having these cars out on the road is a big part of classic car ownership. It’s the biggest shame when you build a car as beautiful as an Aston Martin DB6 and it’s seized with 25 years of cover.” Lorenz himself drives an electrified Jaguar XK120, another legendary classic.
Lunaz first started with the idea of electrifying and upgrading iconic classics for hotel fleets, inspired by Lorenz’s background in the hospitality industry. With low emission zones emerging in cities, such as London’s ULEZ, it is vital that these vehicles connected to urban accommodation have zero emissions. “The Rolls-Royce Phantom platform is aimed at worldwide hotels and casinos, which have fleet vehicles,” says Lorenz. “They are nine-seater limousines. You can’t drive one yourself. They are very big to drive around London, but it is a beautiful vehicle to have in the back. It would be great if an establishment had to transfer guests to hotels or take tours around Central London or other cities around the world.”
There are several benefits to commercial vehicle overclocking, however. Here, Lunaz can bring vehicles to market much faster than those built from scratch. “We come to market within two years, not eight years, because 80% of that vehicle carries over,” says Lorenz. “We don’t need to design the windscreen wipers, door seals, doors, latches or locks.” Lunaz’s current factory is configured to upgrade 1,100 commercial vehicles a year, compared to 85 cars a year for the classic conversion business, although it remains the largest factory of its kind in the world for classic electric vehicle retrofits, according to Lorenz. Each commercial vehicle takes 14 days to convert, and Lorenz plans to increase capacity to 5,000 vehicles a year in the future.
Although the production of commercial vehicles will dwarf the classic cars, the latter were essential to generate publicity for Lunaz. “If you build the world’s first electric Rolls-Royce, you get pretty good brand recognition,” says Lorenz. “You’re going to create quality assurance, engineering capability, and show that something from the 1960s can be updated to the 2020s. The Rolls-Royce showed the world that we could take an existing product and upgrade it. We launched the first Rolls Royce just to start building what the brand was about before we had a factory.”
However, vehicles like the Phantom can never be niche. “The love of classic cars is great, but if it’s going to have any impact on the world and start lowering emissions, the only way to do that is to re-engineer existing commercial vehicles,” he says Lorenz. “If you are a fleet operator and you have 4,000 vehicles in your fleet, you have not done anything about the emissions crisis if you buy new EVs, because your old vehicles will be in less privileged countries, you will get longer hours and that you get products. more emissions.”
Lorenz feels that his upcycled commercial vehicles can make a significant contribution to changing the environmental agenda. “We recycle every element, and then the vehicle leaves us as a cleaner powertrain vehicle with 82% of embedded carbon saved,” he says. “Everyone says they want to be green, but for a fleet operator it also has to make commercial sense. I love the industrial side of the business as much as these timeless pieces like the Rolls-Royce. An airport vehicle, for example, has looked like an airport vehicle for the past 25 years. So they are a great application for re-engineering and upcycling rather than new construction because they are not subject to the image of the vehicle.” But Lunaz updates the safety technology on its commercial vehicles, for example by adding 360-degree cameras. So the end result is better in other ways than having a zero emission drivetrain.
“We’re just at the beginning of a complete acceleration in the industry,” concludes Lorenz. “This transition is happening much faster than I would have thought. If you had asked me three years ago if I thought we would be where we are today, I would have said no. We are accelerating much faster into clean air trains, which is great. The sooner we do this and the quicker we address emissions-producing cradle-to-grave vehicles, the better off the world will be.”
