Electrified classic car firm Lunaz will receive investment from former England footballer David Beckham as the company plans to grow its production offering.
Beckham has taken a 10% stake in the firm, which was founded in 2018, and joins investors such as the Rueben and Barclay families. The Silverstone-based company aims to provide 500 highly skilled jobs by 2024.
“Lunaz represents the very best of British ingenuity in both technology and design," Beckham said. "I was drawn to the company through their work restoring some of the most beautiful classic cars through upcycling and electrification.
“[Company founder] David Lorenz and his team of world-class engineers are building something very special and I look forward to being part of their growth.”
Lunaz already has a wide portfolio of classic cars, producing electrified versions of the original Bentley Continental, the Mk1 Range Rover and Rolls-Royce Phantom V, but will expand its production to make commercial vehicles on a mass global scale. This will start with industrial HGVs such as refuse trucks.
The firm also announced plans for the Lunaz Group, with three individual divisions. Lunaz Design will focus on classic car revival, Lunaz Applied Technologies will upcycle fleet vehicles, and Lunaz Powertrain will provide the manufacturer’s proprietary modular powertrain.
READ MORE
Silverstone start-up Lunaz to electrify British classic cars
Join the debate
Add your comment
About the classic cars: They cover very limited annual mileages, so use very little fuel. The pollution created to manufacture them happened decades ago so, going forward, it's zero. As a result, they create very little pollution today. To convert them to electric, you need to manufacture new electric motors -- the production of which is environmentally harmful -- and manufacture new batteries -- whihc is environmentally harmful. Not only does this ruin, imo, so much of the appeal of a classic car, it's worse for the environment. Brilliant.
The mainstream media covered this story in better detail - and made a very good case for converting old bin lorries to EVs. Given the amount of diesel these old vehicles use, that seems a great way of giving us all cleaner air in cities.