David Beckham invests in Lunaz

David Beckham joins the Barclay, Reuben and Alexander Dellal families investing in vehicle electrification company Lunaz, which has announced a new growth phase following their backing. 

“Lunaz represents the very best of British ingenuity in both technology and design,” says Beckham, joining Lunaz founding investors Navid Mirtorabi and CJ Jones.

“I was drawn to the company through their work restoring some of the most beautiful classic cars through upcycling and electrification.

“David Lorenz and his team of world-class engineers are building something very special and I look forward to being part of their growth.”

Beckham takes a 10% stake in Lunaz which has brought to market the world’s first fully-electric Range Rover, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Jaguar sports cars through its Lunaz Design brand.

The 1961 Bentley Continental Flying Spur by Lunaz was awarded by BBC Top Gear in its ‘Electric Vehicle Awards’ issue.

Increasing pressure from legislators to limit the use of high-emissions vehicles in city-centres as helped lead to Lunaz’s growth.

Headquartered in Silverstone, Lunaz is expanding to include electrification of industrial vehicles on a global scale and expects to double its workforce and provide more than 500 highly skilled jobs by 2024.

“The upcycling of existing passenger, industrial and commercial vehicles presents a sustainable alternative to replacing with new,” Lunaz founder and chief executive David Lorenz says.

“Our approach will save fleet operators capital while dramatically reducing waste in the global drive towards de-carbonisation.”

Lunaz will begin with industrial HGV vehicles including refuse trucks, of which 80 million exist in the UK, Europe and USA alone.

The Lunaz remanufacturing and electrification process will extend the life of up to 70% of the existing weight and embedded carbon within a vehicle.

A municipal authority could save more than 43% in the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an upcycled and electrified refuse truck versus replacing its existing fleet with new equivalent EVs, Lunaz says.

The Lunaz proprietary powertrain has been developed under the technical leadership of managing director and technical lead Jon Hilton who pioneered the use of hybrid technology from motorsport for mainstream industrial and passenger vehicles.

By 2030 when internal combustion engine (ICE) bans in major markets come into effect, more than two billion conventionally powered vehicles will exist.

Remanufacturing, upcycling and electrification can prevent a large proportion of these vehicles from being scrapped, Lunaz points out.

It will have three distinct companies involved – Lunaz Design which revives, re-engineers and converts pinnacle classic cars to electric powertrains; Lunaz Applied Technologies which upcycles and re-engineers specialist industrial fleet vehicles (classes 6, 7 and 8 initially) to factory new standard and converts them; and Lunaz Powertrain which provides the Lunaz proprietary modular powertrain as a turn-key, white-label product for OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and independent automotive engineering businesses.

Under Hilton’s technical leadership, Lunaz delivers through a world-class group of technical specialists drawn from companies including Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, McLaren, Renault Formula 1, Prodrive, Ferrari and Cosworth.

Jason Hill joined the company in January 2021 as engineering director, pioneering the use of clean-air powertrains in racing. The company is already in discussions with European governments seeking to attract fast-growth clean technology engineering businesses.