DAVID LORENZ, founder and chief executive of specialist vehicle upcycling company Lunaz, has been named one of The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders for 2023.
The list, created by investment partner LDC – part of Lloyds Banking Group – and supported by The Times, names the business leaders building the most successful medium-sized businesses.
Lunaz, based at Silverstone, is one of the UK’s fastest-growing clean-technology businesses. It upcycles vehicles of all types by replacing the internal combustion engine with a fully electric, emission-free powertrain developed and manufactured in house.
Its main commercial focus is on upcycling end-of-life industrial vehicles including refuse trucks and secured a long-term order earlier this year from Biffa, the UK’s leading sustainable waste management operator to electrify most of the company’s 600-plus refuse truck fleet .
It is also in discussions with several government authorities to replace obsolescent diesel refuse trucks.
Mr Lorenz pictured above, who founded the company in 2018, said; “I am delighted to be part of this list, which includes some truly amazing, visionary people. My ambitions for Lunaz have always gone beyond the business itself. I firmly believe every vehicle has the potential to live at least two lives. Upcycling can help us plot a more sustainable path to a lower-carbon future, by breaking the environmentally ruinous ‘replace with new’ cycle that still holds back so much of the automotive industry.”
Lunaz also converts British classic cars, including the Aston Martin DB6 and Rolls-Royce Phantom. It saw record sales last year, including work on the Bentley Continental S2, the rarest classic car ever converted to electric power, and a fully open 1983 Range Rover Safari that featured with actor Roger Moore at the wheel in the James Bond film Octopussy.
“We are demonstrating that, through technology, we can make existing, heavily polluting vehicles of all types genuinely sustainable while enhancing their functionality,” Mr Lorenz said. We have solved the technical challenge of decarbonisation: our upcycled electric vehicles prove that electric power is not a pipedream or ‘the future’; it’s practical and happening now.
“My overarching ambition is to foster a new mindset, based on repurposing not replacement, and to present climate action in terms of positive gains, not just reduction, utility, economy and sacrifice. With bold thinking, imagination, creativity and passion, supported by green investment, we can make hugely positive environmental changes.”
The LDC Top 50 aims to champion the successes of medium-sized businesses, “the unsung heroes of the British economy,” said LDC managing partner John Garner.