Lunaz Applied Technologies (LAT) has announced that its vast vehicle upcycling campus at Silverstone Park is now fully operational following a major expansion.
The facility, the first of its kind in the world, now occupies a total of 100,000 sq ft according to Lunaz – nearly four times its original size when it opened in 2018.
Some 300 jobs have been created as a result of the expansion, making LAT one of the largest companies within the Silverstone Technology Cluster by space and employees.
The expansion means LAT can significantly increase production of its upcycled electric vehicles (UEVs), with capacity to now produce 1,100 of them per year.
Lunaz Founder David Lorenz commented:
The expansion of the Lunaz Silverstone campus is a clear demonstration of our commitment to breaking the ‘replace-with-new’ cycle.
“Lunaz now has the largest manufacturing footprint of any company within the Silverstone Technology Cluster.
“From this state-of-the-art facility, we unlock the power of upcycling, providing UEVs that are cleaner, cheaper and better equipped than their all-new equivalents.
“Our new and fully operational facilities, which gives us four times as much space as we had before, enables us to continue scaling up production of our UEVs, meet the demands of more fleet operators and government bodies who want to benefit from our technology.
“We will also continue to grow this critical sector through the research and development of our proprietary EV technologies, too.
“Above all, it’s a huge vote of confidence in our own technology and upcycling model, and in Silverstone as a location. We’re very excited that this new chapter for LAT has now begun.”
Upcycling involves taking conventional diesel-powered refuse trucks alongside other commercial vehicles and converting them to fully electric power when they reach the end of their normal working lives.
Lunaz says that UEVs are proven to be cleaner, cheaper and better-equipped than all-new equivalents, saving money for local taxpayers and helping authorities achieve their net-zero goals.
Research, states the business, shows upcycling also carries over more than 80% of the originally embedded carbon from the initial vehicle production process when compared to buying new.
An independent audit showed that the LAT model preserves the equivalent weight of the Eiffel Tower in carbon every year.
The additional space allows LAT to bring the majority of the upcycling in-house, giving it total quality control at every stage of the production process and enabling seamless integration of its proprietary technologies.
LAT has substantially extended the space devoted to innovation within its Silverstone Park facility. The company is pursuing various avenues of technology development to make the upcycling process even more efficient and cost effective, enabling further savings for its customers.
In this spirit, LAT has already completely designed its own battery packs, fitted to the UEV the bottom up.
This allows its engineers to have full control over the technology and chemistry, enabling an optimum power delivery solution based on each vehicle’s application.
Batteries are fully assembled and tested on site at Silverstone Park allowing LAT’s world-class team to have complete oversight of quality control of these critical components.
In keeping with its wider environmental mission, the LAT facility is powered entirely by renewable energy.
