Taking a 10% stake in Lunaz expands Brand Beckham investment portfolio
With his football playing career at an end, car enthusiast David Beckham has confirmed recently an investment in Silverstone-based classic vehicle upcycling specialist, Lunaz Group, which Iain Robertson suggests could be hugely opportunistic.
Founded in 2018 by entrepreneur David Lorenz and former F1 technical director Jon Hilton, Lunaz Design commenced its business operation with the judicious reworking, restoration and electrification of notionally high-end classic vehicles. With several governments committed to ending the sales of fossil fuelled vehicles in their national car parcs by 2030, Lunaz perception and goal is to ensure that what might be consigned to an automotive scrapheap is provided with a major lifeline for a new age.
In the three years since its inception, Lunaz has expanded to incorporate Applied Technologies and Powertrain arms. The former upcycles and re-engineers specialist industrial fleet vehicles to factory-new standard and converts them to the Lunaz proprietary and electric powertrain, while the latter division provides the Lunaz proprietary modular powertrain as a turn-key, white-label product for carmakers (including OEMs), Tier 1 suppliers and independent automotive engineering businesses. Its links to potential high-end investors have arisen through its growing customer base.
Lunaz’s recent focus on heavy industrial vehicle classes 6, 7 and 8, which includes HGVs, refuse trucks, fire engines and other large commercial vehicles, is an intriguing one. Unburdened from the capital expenditure requirements of manufacturers building electric vehicles from scratch, the company can take vehicles and upcycle them using components that have been proven over millions of miles. The Lunaz solution is ‘de-risked’ and provides an instantly deployable alternative to ICE vehicles, or new EV alternatives.
Yet, when the firm converts a classic Range Rover from its former V8 petrol status to EV, the completed list price is a hefty £245,000. Lunaz has already performed a similar task on a Rolls-Royce Phantom V limousine that has a £500,000 price tag attached to it. Naturally, the comprehensive re-engineering and restoration services add substantially to the invoice value but Lunaz may have a problem convincing local authorities to invest similar sums of money on their upcycled trucks, regardless of their specialities, despite a pressing requirement to extend the life of redundant commercial and industrial vehicles.
However, Lunaz employs a smart remanufacturing process. Duty cycles are studied to tailor the approach to the exact requirements of the fleet operator. As an example, the Lunaz proprietary powertrain offers the flexibility to adapt torque requirements, battery size and motor specification for the specific route that a refuse truck might take. Overall, this can translate into economic and ecological resources that are never wasted.
The engineering and design principles are guided by a philosophy that does not limit the functionality of the vehicle. Infotainment, navigation and technological aspects can all be updated to whatever standards are being applied at the time, which can futureproof the investment. What this means, in essence, is that the fleet operator is able to make a commercially sound and sustainable choice with zero penalties being applied to the usability of the asset. Lunaz states that it has developed a modular powertrain, which means that its approach can be applied to multiple vehicle classes, sizes and functions. Yet, while it needs to ensure that costs are also sustainable, most especially to the public sector, which is under constant scrutiny, it will be fascinating to reveal its findings, as it repurposes its first HGV in the coming months.
Naturally, David Beckham retains his financial interests in the US and UK football scenes but, in combination with his wife, Victoria, the former Spice Girl and owner of a sometime successful fashion house, they represent a billion Dollar business empire. Making additional investments keeps the wheels turning at Brand Beckham and Lunaz can be said to be in the right space to strengthen its portfolio. As it happens, David, who is aware of the attention his celebrity status can provide, is joining other strategic and wealthy investors, like the Reuben, Barclay and Dellal families, in taking a stake in Lunaz. As he told us: “Lunaz represents the very best of British ingenuity in both technology and design. 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.”
If I harbour any concerns about the future of Lunaz, they lie in its lofty stated aim of repurposing large numbers of ICE vehicles to EV status. According to co-founder of the company, David Lorenz: “By 2030, when the UK ban on internal combustion engine car sales will come into effect, there will be two billion ICE vehicles on the planet. Without conversion to electric power, they will represent mass redundancy of finite resources that could otherwise be re-used. Our approach answers the urgent need to extend the lives of those vehicles for future generations.”
Having set out the electrified Lunaz stall with high-value collectibles, unless the conversion costs per unit can amortised in the region of £6,000 to £10,000 (the current premium attached to many EVs over their ICE nearest relations), without restoration, even tackling a tiny percentage of the 2bn potential ‘waste’ market will be unattainable. However, our government is yet to confirm its plans on how to deal with the eventual future scrappage of hundreds of thousands of end-of-life ICE vehicles in the UK alone. ‘Natural wastage’ is not an answer.
In today’s ‘apologist’ society, David Beckham’s high-profile investment in a vehicle electrification business will be perceived as worthy. Lunaz will have a future in the specialist niches it is outlining at present, although its sustainability in a fast-changing market may become questionable.
