British firm reveals its first upcycled electric refuse truck

British firm Lunaz has revealed its first ‘upcycled’ electric vehicle in the form of a refuse truck.

Based at Silverstone, Lunaz is perhaps better known for converting classic cars to run on electric powertrains, but it has also turned its hand to commercial vehicles.

The new refuse truck is said to cost about the same as a new diesel lorry and is considerably less expensive than a new electric vehicle.

The upcycling process involves taking an existing diesel-powered truck, removing the engine and replacing it with Lunaz’s electric powertrain.

However, it also goes through a complete overhaul with a full bare-metal restoration, meaning buyers get a vehicle in factory-fresh condition.

Lunaz says that the benefit of upcycling is that it’s much more environmentally friendly than disposing of an existing truck and buying a new one. An audit commissioned by the firm found that ‘80 per cent of embedded carbon over total lifetime is saved when upcycling rather than replacing an existing refuse truck with a new EV equivalent’.

Other upgrades include wing mirrors replaced with cameras, blind spot monitoring technology and a 360-degree bird’s-eye view camera to improve the safety of workers.

Lunaz is already establishing a new ‘electrification facility’ built near to its existing headquarters and is hiring 350 people to work in it. In total, more than 1,100 upcycled electric vehicles (UEV) will roll out from Lunaz’s production facility each year. First examples of the refuse truck are expected to be delivered to public and private sectors next year.

Lunaz says its senior engineering team participated in refuse collection rounds to figure out what features were most important. For example, the trucks will have new seat designs as one of the most common complaints from workers was that the existing seats were uncomfortable.

As for the powertrain itself, Lunaz says it will adapt to each company’s needs, for example, if a lorry is being used on a shorter urban route it will have a smaller battery than one that’s used on long urban routes.

David Lorenz, founder of Lunaz, said: “We are proud to stand amongst some of the fastest growing companies in the UK. By upcycling and electrifying industrial vehicles at scale, millions of tonnes of embedded carbon is saved by dramatically extending the usable life of thousands of vehicles that would otherwise be scrapped.

“By applying this approach to public sector vehicles like refuse trucks we deliver a result that is better for the taxpayer and better for the planet.”