Motorsport News.................................03 - 06, 9, 10, 23

MCLAREN RACING TO ENTER EXTREME E IN 2022

McLaren Racing will open a new motorsport chapter in 2022 when it enters a team into Extreme E, the innovative allelectric off-road series which aims to use racing to promote sustainability and diversity. The team will compete in the five-race global championship, helping to accelerate McLaren Racing’s own sustainability and diversity agenda, while reaching new fans and partners, and growing the McLaren Racing brand and franchise.

“From the moment Extreme E was announced we have been following the progress of the series closely,” Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing, commented. “Our attention was immediately drawn by the innovative format of this motorsport platform, in particular the ability it gives us to accelerate and boost our own overarching sustainability agenda, which shares the same priorities of decarbonisation, waste reduction, diversity and equality.

The decision to enter Extreme E follows a detailed evaluation of the series by McLaren against a set of strategic, economic and operational criteria. These were underpinned by a clear imperative for accelerating McLaren Racing’s own sustainability mission, which places carbon reduction, the recycling, reuse and elimination of waste, and diversity, equality and inclusion at its core.

Extreme E highlights the impact of climate change in some of the world’s most remote environments, promotes the adoption of electric vehicles to pave the way for a lower carbon future, and provides a world-first gender-equal motorsport platform.

Source: talkmotorsport.co.nz

INDUSTRY NEWS

HILUX LEADS STRONG MAY SALES RECOVERY

The Toyota Hilux led a strong Aussie market recovery in May 2021 with 4402 units sold, followed by the Ford Ranger which saw 4254 units sold and the Toyota RAV-4 saw 4014 units sold in spite of restricted supply of the hybrid models.

Toyota was the Australian new car market leader in May recording sales of 21,156 units. It was followed by Mazda (10,554), Kia (7124), Ford (6493) and Mitsubishi (6478). The demand for new vehicles for business and private use remains strong with a 2021 record number of 100,809 new vehicle sales being recorded in May according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI). The result this month surpasses the March result of 100,005 and has the industry on track to return to sales of more than one million new vehicles for the year. It shows an increase of 68.3 per cent on the corresponding month last year which was significantly impacted through COVID-19 lockdowns across the country. FCAI chief executive Tony Weber says the result once again showed that confidence in the national economy and pentup demand across all sectors were strong enough to counter issues related to COVID-19 uncertainties and supply chain issues. “While we cannot be certain about the future economic impacts of the COVID-19 situation, businesses and households are showing their confidence by purchasing new vehicles,” he says. “I expect this situation will continue to improve in the second half of this calendar year as confidence continues to grow, coupled with incentives such as the extension of the depreciation allowance for business which was announced in the Federal Budget during the month. Weber says that the rental segment continued to grow with the year to date result up 69.4% while private sales were up 50.3% year to date. “The result also highlights the outstanding efforts by all parties in the supply chain in continuing to meet the demands of their of their customers in the face of ongoing challenges such as the shortage of microprocessors and shipping delays,” Weber says.

DAVID BECKHAM INVESTS IN LUNAZ

David Beckham joins the Barclay, Reuben and Alexander Dellal families investing in vehicle electrification company Lunaz, which has announced a new growth phase following their backing.

“Lunaz represents the very best of British ingenuity in both technology and design,” says Beckham, joining Lunaz founding investors Navid Mirtorabi and CJ Jones.

“I was drawn to the company through their work restoring some of the most beautiful classic cars through upcycling and electrification.

Beckham takes a 10% stake in Lunaz which has brought to market the world’s first fully-electric Range Rover, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Jaguar sports cars through its Lunaz Design brand. Increasing pressure from legislators to limit the use of highemissions vehicles in city-centres as helped lead to Lunaz’s growth. Headquartered in Silverstone, Lunaz is expanding to include electrification of industrial vehicles on a global scale and expects to double its workforce and provide more than 500 highly skilled jobs by 2024. “The upcycling of existing passenger, industrial and commercial vehicles presents a sustainable alternative to replacing with new,” Lunaz founder and chief executive David Lorenz says. “Our approach will save fleet operators capital while dramatically reducing waste in the global drive towards de-carbonisation.” Lunaz will begin with industrial HGV vehicles including refuse trucks, of which 80 million exist in the UK, Europe and USA alone. The Lunaz remanufacturing and electrification process will extend the life of up to 70% of the existing weight and embedded carbon within a vehicle.

A municipal authority could save more than 43% in the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an upcycled and electrified refuse truck versus replacing its existing fleet with new equivalent EVs, Lunaz says. Remanufacturing, upcycling and electrification can prevent More connections More rewards. a large proportion of these vehicles from being scrapped, Lunaz points out. It will have three distinct companies involved – Lunaz Design which revives, re-engineers and converts pinnacle classic cars to electric powertrains; Lunaz Applied Technologies which upcycles and re-engineers specialist industrial fleet vehicles (classes 6, 7 and 8 initially) to factory new standard and converts them; and Lunaz Powertrain which Earn more GetGenuine points by purchasing from our participating dealers. provides the Lunaz proprietary modular powertrain as a turn-key, white-label product for OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and independent automotive engineering businesses.We have made it simple with our quick and easy contact form.Lunaz delivers through a world-class group of technical specialists drawn from companies including Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, McLaren, Renault Formula 1, Prodrive, Click the ‘Connect now’ link, select the dealers you would like Ferrari and Cosworth.to start purchasing from, provide us with a few details then we will do the rest. Source: autotalk.com.au

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