In the realm of luxury automotive engineering, where tradition meets innovation at a crossroads, a new era is being ushered in by Czinger Vehicles—a name that is rapidly becoming synonymous with the pioneering spirit of the 21st-century hypercar. At the helm of this inspiring journey is Lukas Czinger, the company’s Co-founder and COO, whose unique blend of passion, technology, and commitment to sustainability is redefining the high-performance vehicle industry.
In an exclusive interview with The Executive Magazine, Czinger opens up about the inception of Czinger Vehicles, the groundbreaking technologies propelling the brand to unprecedented heights, and the personal ethos driving a new standard of eco-conscious excellence. Join us as we delve into a narrative that’s not just about crafting the world’s fastest street-legal cars but about sculpting a future where luxury, performance, and sustainability coalesce into the ultimate driving experience.
What inspired you to establish Czinger Vehicles, and how do you believe your brand is redefining the automotive industry?
“Czinger Vehicles is birthed from my and my father’s lifelong dream: to create this century’s next great, enduring automotive brand. Motivated by sustainability since realizing that how we make cars is more destructive to the environment than how we fuel them, our mission is to upend traditional automotive manufacturing.
“As technologists, creators, and car enthusiasts, we became laser-focused on building new technology that fundamentally changes how we design, manufacture, and assemble complex structures, such as the chassis of an automobile. These novel systems include automated engineering design software, patented materials, additive manufacturing machines, and fixtureless robotic assembly systems. We then understood that these cutting-edge tools ultimately needed to be expressed in a product that displayed the benefits.
“That product company is Czinger Vehicles, the only OEM to fully utilize these innovative tools in the vehicle development process, with our first proof of concept being the 21C. Czinger represents over 650 patents and sets a new benchmark for performance with the world’s fastest fully homologated vehicle, bringing sustainable design and manufacturing to the industry and creating America’s first hypercar brand that is family-founded and led.”
Can you discuss the initial challenges you faced while transitioning from traditional automotive manufacturing to your proprietary 3D printing and automated assembly technologies?
“In the first three years, we faced a very high amount of technology risk, having to invent our way through many roadblocks. These inventions ranged from new adhesives to new aluminium alloys to specific systems of metrology guidance for robotic joining of structures. At the vehicle level, significant early challenges included designing and manufacturing crashworthy structures and developing our own in-house designed V8 engine. Czinger did not change one part of automotive design or a piece of manufacturing but rather changed the system overall to a completely new one – the Divergent Adaptive Production System.”
How has your background influenced the direction and ethos of Czinger Vehicles, particularly in terms of sustainability and innovation?
“Growing up, our family moved every few years, this allowed for an abnormally high concentration of new experiences.
“I’ve always been a creator and find great joy in being productive, whether it is creating artwork or solving a complex math problem.
“The environment and outdoors have always been my passion since I was a young kid, and they are still so today. I have always had a close relationship with nature and a real drive for sustaining it.
“My love of cars, both building and driving, also started young. Before I even had my driver’s license, I had already spent all my money and worked on setting up my first car.
“I went on to study electrical engineering at Yale. This taught me the fundamentals of engineering and physics and, importantly, pushed me to discover how to learn efficiently.
“My edge has been creativity, open-mindedness, extreme logic, and pushing constraints out much further than most see as possible.”
Divergent 3D plays a significant role in the development of Czinger Vehicles. Could you elaborate on how the collaboration between Divergent 3D and Czinger has shaped the company’s technological advancements?
“Divergent and Czinger Vehicles are both led together by Kevin and me. I am the President/COO of both, while Kevin is the CEO of both. Both companies work closely together, separate business units within the same overall company. Divergent focuses on developing design software, materials, additive manufacturing machines, and robotics. In contrast, Czinger leverages the tools that Divergent has developed to engineer industry-leading and industry-defining automotive systems, including the most power dense production engine ever made, and the first electronically actuated dual barrel 7-speed AMT, among others.”
The 21C is acclaimed as the world’s fastest street-legal car and a beacon of sustainable manufacturing. What are the key factors that contribute to its superior performance and environmental efficiency?
“The critical factor is the reduction in mass. Our AI-optimized and additively manufactured parts typically weigh 20-40% less than traditional cast or machined structures. This equates to better performance but also means we use 20-40% less raw materials than traditional. Dematerialization (using less material for the same performance) is the most effective way to increase environmental sustainability.”
Czinger’s approach to vehicle manufacturing emphasises sustainability. How do you measure the environmental impact of your vehicles, and what are your future goals for reducing this further?
“We measure total lifecycle emissions – meaning cradle to grave CO2 emissions. Our process uses less raw material inputs, uses less energy during manufacturing, and can run zero emissions on the road. All the primary chassis materials are also recyclable. This leads to a significantly lower total lifecycle emissions score than a traditional vehicle (even an EV).
“In the future, as we expand into higher numbers of vehicles, we will look to sustainable material selection for chassis components, further mass reduction, and proving the material recycling model at scale. We are also investing heavily into net zero emissions combustible fuels such as carbon recycled methanol. “
With over 600 patents for your manufacturing technologies, how does Czinger Vehicles maintain its competitive edge in the fast-evolving automotive sector?
“Our pace of patent filing is increasing. Once we have developed the tools systems and as the innovative employee base grows and the software matures, new ideas are generated even quicker. Czinger Vehicles will always deploy the latest in this technology at least 3-5 years ahead of the rest of the industry.”
Can you share insights into the development process of the 21C, particularly how AI and machine learning contribute to its design and performance optimizations?
“The AI-based generative design system engineers perfectly Pareto optimized structures – meaning the structure cannot be any more efficient (lighter) while meeting the necessary requirements such as strength. This system will continue to adapt, but these “perfect” structures are already being designed today. This software is used to engineer and optimize the 21C chassis.”
How do you envision the future of automotive manufacturing, and what role will Czinger Vehicles play in shaping this future?
“We see Czinger Vehicles as leading the industry in manufacturing performance vehicles (hypercars and supercars). We are the first company in the US to truly do innovative in-house design and manufacturing of a vehicle class with a new technology. Our vehicles are fully homologated, meaning they have a complete CARB for emissions and full crash testing.”
The automotive industry is highly competitive. How does Czinger Vehicles position itself against established and emerging players, especially in the ultra-performance segment?
“It’s simple, we position ourselves as being the clear performance leader. By having a novel technology. By being family-founded and led. And by being the only US OEM that is capable of in-house design and manufacturing of hypercars.”
What strategies are in place for scaling up production while maintaining the high standards of innovation and sustainability that Czinger is known for?
“Czinger will stay low volume and focus on the innovation of new performance vehicles. We’re investing in R&D over large production scale. Think of Czinger Vehicles as the NASA of the aerospace industry.”
Collaborations can be pivotal for growth. Are there any future partnerships or collaborations that Czinger Vehicles is exploring to enhance its technological capabilities or market reach?
“We already collaborate in certain areas of the vehicle, including some of the EV systems. However, we see great performance and quality advantages, and leverage by designing and manufacturing in-house and will keep this as a core principle into the future.”
The 21C embodies a significant shift from analog to digital in car manufacturing. How do you see digital transformation impacting customer experiences and expectations in the automotive industry?
“Mass customization (economic custom-made vehicles across volume ranges). In the future, virtual crash will be accepted as simulations will be validated / fully correlated over large data sets.”
As founders, what has been your most significant learning from building Czinger Vehicles, and how has this influenced your vision for the company’s future?
“Never compromise on talent. Don’t be scared of disruption. Focus on the result as the ultimate measure and reward.”
Finally, what advice would you give to entrepreneurs aspiring to disrupt traditional industries with innovative technologies or forward-thinking concepts?
“Make a thorough, meticulously thought-out, and disciplined execution plan and meet it with immense focus and relentless drive, but stay open-minded so you may still see the new opportunities along the way.
“Take time to think in isolation; this is often where your most creative ideas will arise.
“The only real shortcut in building a business is people. Bring in the best of the best – their years of experience and pure talent are your shortcut.
“Constantly shift your perspective so that you have a comprehensive understanding. Recalibrate by looking at the output (the product/the thing you make).
“Start by considering a problem statement you are passionate about, and build from there.”