As orginally reported by The Truck Expert, the CEO of UK-based commercial vehicle converter Lunaz has urged for more trucks to be modified to run on electric power rather than being scrapped and replaced with new electric vehicles. David Lorenz, CEO of Lunaz, asked all those working in the automobile sector to search for methods to minimise raw materials for these new transportation alternatives being provided.
“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. “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.
“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.”
With the truck and road freight sector being urged to accelerate towards sustainability, Lorenz’s words resonate more than ever. The abandonment of thousands of vehicles seems anything but enviromentally conscious, a problem not many have seemed to address or been concerned with. It is assumed this conversion comes at another hefty cost, potentially more than the leasing of a new zero emmissions vehicle; however, from what we already know the transition to net zero isn’t going to be a cheap one.
