The CEO of commercial vehicle company Lunaz has called for more trucks to be converted to run on electric power, rather than scrapping them and building new electric ones.
David Lorenz, CEO of Lunaz, speaking ahead of the COP27 summit on climate change in Egypt, also urged all those involved in the automotive industry to look at ways to reduce the raw materials for these new transport solutions being offered.
“The more raw materials, the more carbon we use, the less likely we are to recover from the environmental impact we’ve caused to-date by scrapping previously manufactured cars, trucks and other fleet vehicles,” he says.
“This year’s COP27 summit marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It goes to show that the need for greener, and better, solutions have been a pressing issue for a long time and will become more crucial in the (near) future.
Planning for the future is great, but there is an urgent need for implementation now that we simply cannot afford to postpone any longer. Why wait to manufacture brand new systems? Why not reuse what we have already and swap out their fossil fuelled engines with cleaner, zero-emission electric powertrains, right now?
“I believe that the most sustainable vehicle is the one that already exists, which is then upcycled to run on electric power,” he said. “It’s our vision at Lunaz, focusing on upcycling vehicles to plot a more sustainable path to a decarbonised future. We launched the Upcycled Electric Vehicle (UEV) programme within our Lunaz Applied Technologies arm a few years ago as a direct response.
Starting with a bin lorry, we remanufacture it to remove the diesel engine, swapping to a more environmentally friendly Lunaz electric powertrain, and at the same time upgrade the cabin to be safer and more ergonomic for the driver.
“If we can upcycle bin lorries, imagine what other transportation methods could benefit from this ethos? The remanufactured and upgraded refuse trucks we’ve started harness the power of upcycling as they are cleaner, cheaper, and better equipped than an all-new battery electric alternative could ever be. When we hired an independent audit, our upcycled refuse truck was proven to save more than 80% of the embedded carbon compared to manufacturing from scratch.”
Lunaz plans to create more UEVs under different platforms in the future.
