There are many family trees in automotive history, some of which have been more successful than others. It is common to pass the torch from founders to their foundlings, but Kevin and Lukas are doing things differently. They have created and run a car business together.
Kevin Czinger, an entrepreneur who is enthusiastic, talkative and a classic, is a favorite interview topic. Lukas Czinger, his son, joined the family business when he was 22 years old. He is now 28 and the COO of Divergent and the co-founder and CEO of Czinger cars. Lukas, who is less outgoing than Kevin and more reserved, wants to show that he doesn’t just follow in his father’s footsteps, but also makes his own path alongside him. We sat down with the younger Czinger to have a coffee and talk about the future of manufacturing and how supercars can save the world.
The Car and the Driver Let’s begin with something that I see many people getting wrong. Is it “Zinger” and not Singer?
Lukas Czinger: Yeah. Just ignore the C.
After that, how long do you work with your father now? Was it always your goal to work with your father?
I began working at Divergent about six years ago. I had been working in finance after school, doing biotech M&A [mergers and acquisitions] At a bank. Kevin was giving a talk at a hardware convention in the Bay Area, so I went to support him by taking a day off.
You always call him by the first name.
No. No. After working with him. I don’t know. He’s my dad.
Do you feel more professional when you don’t let others know that your connection is active?
Yeah. I think that people know we are in boardrooms and we talk to CEOs from car companies often. He wants to talk about his points. I want to discuss mine. I don’t like to begin with “My father said.”
You got it. What was the presentation? What was the presentation?
He presented his ideas on automotive manufacturing. These ideas were not fully developed, but they included design software, additive manufacture, and assembly. The narrative was how we build and power is equally important.
I studied electrical engineering and have always enjoyed cars and building things. What he said sounded really cool. I called him and asked, “Hey how about I work for you?” He asked, “Are You Sure?” This is a very early stage startup. It’s a startup that is in its early stages.
You said that your father asked you if you are sure you want to be involved in the new project. What was he afraid of?
It was a very soft risk because I knew I could always fall back on my family in an emergency. It’s not like I’d be out on the streets the next morning if it didn’t work, but I already had a job that would lead to something in the future if I stuck with it. [in biotech]If you quit your job when you’re just starting, you may find it difficult to return on the same path or enter a good market. I also knew how it would look, because I was going work with my father, and the first thing people were going to say was, “Did they hire him because it’s dad?”
Divergent Manufacturing and Additive Manufacturing
What’s special about Divergent? It’s not the only company trying 3-D printing.
Divergent has three major pillars. The software is what we use to design the parts. We have a team of software engineers who have written the natural source code to optimize, design, and assemble our parts.
What production modeling software do you use?
We use a few of the tools, but we do our own optimization. We will still use LS-DYNA [structural analysis software] Or a Radioss crash simulator. This is a standard physics software that has been tested by the entire industry. We will plug in our design and run it. Before we use a standard program, we will optimize the component. This is done by our own software called BDESO – Bidirectional Evolutionary Structures optimization – where you can add and subtract materials based on all of your requirements. You enter the things you’re sure it will experience and then you can add or remove material, as well as run a simulation to determine what mass target is desired. . .
What happens when a vehicle hits a pothole below?
Yeah. Yeah. It will eventually converge, and this is called braid optimization. This means optimizing multiple variables at the same time. This is something you can only achieve with supercomputers, as solving a multi-variable problem by hand would take hours. These solutions are the result of tens-of-thousands of simulations, which took hours. It’s all software.
The additive manufacturing piece, which is the 3-D printing, but also the software that runs the 3-D printers—which is its whole own topic: How do you steer these lasers, how long do you turn these lasers on, what’s the pattern you’re using?
Next, there are materials. We’ve got our own aluminum alloys, and once we have those 3-D-printed parts—say it’s 30 of them for the rear frame of a vehicle–we come to the last part of the process. How can we put them together so that all the benefits of digital production are maximized? Fast iteration, and lighter components are two of the benefits. If I need to change a design, my software will do it in minutes or hours. My 3-D printer will print the new design. I do not want to go through an assembly where I would have to build new fixtures in order to hold the new part. This would add a lot of time and analog processes to what was supposed to be a digital manufacturing process.
We hadn’t yet developed the third part when I joined Divergent. We needed an assembly system which was not design-specific, and could take any number 3D printed components and do structural assemblies that are automotive and aerospace grade. We can build the 21C frame in one day, then immediately after, an OEM part for a customer, then an Aston Martin piece, then a defence piece on the same hardware.
It is not your goal to become a huge automotive brand. Your aim is to expand in the automotive industry, so that other brands can use these techniques. Right?
Exactly. Czinger’s focus is on being the performance company. Our creativity, we believe, can become a very big business. Divergent, on the other hand, is a company that focuses on manufacturing and services. I don’t know all the OEMs with whom we work, but I will say that we ship frames to Aston Martin. There are also seven other OEMs who’ll be revealed.
When did you decide on a hypercar project? How did you get from an experimental manufacturing process to “You know, let’s take on McLaren?”
Divergent is really an environmental company. We had a Blade concept car for the entire time. It wasn’t an hypercar. It was just a demonstration to show what the technology would look like as a car. It was not a high-performance car or an engineered vehicle. Nor would it have broken any records. We built that car to have something for investors when they come; “This is how the structure might look.”
After a few months of that, we said, “Divergent is working out. The tools are working. We’ve wanted to build cars for years. Let’s try to do this.” So, I was a cofounder of the car company along with Kevin.
The Czinger 21C hypercar is a two-seater, long and lean car powered by an exclusive 2.9-liter flatplane-crank engine that can rev up to 11,000rpm. It produces 1300hp. The front wheels are powered by two electric motors, and the 0-60 time is less than 2 seconds. Driver and passenger sit in single file.
Did you ever think, when you and your team were talking about making a car, that it might not be a hypercar? Perhaps a car for the people or something more affordable?
We considered a variety of options, based on a number of different scenarios. You have to choose something you are confident you can also deliver. As a large company, trying to pursue something that is hyper-volume — hundreds of thousands of units, or millions — just doesn’t make sense. What can we show the world? What are we passionate about, was the question for the car company. What technology can be used to draw attention?
You’re now in 2020, and your company is a brand new automaker with your name. What’s next?
My mother was adamant that I not call it Czinger. She told me, “Don’t use your family name for anything.” What an egotistical thing to say. The marketing team was really pushing the name Czinger. She’s gotten a little more on board with it. Back to the car. We had just a few people working on it, and we took a look at the steps we needed to take to make the Blade concept car into an actual record breaking hybrid car.
Then we got started. I hired about 40 of the best automotive engineers that I know. We ran the Blade on the 21C and then the 21C in Laguna, where we got the unofficial/official record for production cars.
What does success mean to you?
These companies have a deep connection to me, and I care about them both. I’d love to lead them both directly in the future. I feel lucky that I have the opportunity to work with Divergent. Many people do not get to choose a career in which they can pursue the things they are passionate about. I would love to see 1000 Divergent factories around the world. Czinger Vehicle, on the other hand, would like to become the American performance auto company that it is capable of becoming, and show the world how innovation can look.
How did you choose the hybrid drivetrain for the 21C model?
Sincerity, it was about performance. I thought about performance on the track, but also performance that could be used in everyday life. EVs alone will not perform laps after laps on the track. The EVs just aren’t there yet. I don’t find it the most fun to drive. You needed a combustion motor to be able to run lap after lap. We also wanted a car that would not only run fast but could compete with track records. Four-wheel drive was a must, as well as the EV system. [traction] This is where the hybrid shines. The electric system can save you valuable seconds. It is the most efficient architecture for a high-performance car. In terms of charging, it’s what F1 cars do.
The 21C engine you design is a V-8 2.9-liter. Why not use a mill that is already available?
We knew that we needed to go above and beyond in order to gain respect within the industry. We also wanted to attract customers to a relatively new car company. In the automotive world, building your own engine shows your capability and earns you a lot of respect. We didn’t just want to buy the best parts and figure out how to incorporate them into the production. We wanted to make those best bits.
Senior Editor for Features
Like a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She was a painter of car images, but she did not have one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Elana’s writing has been published in numerous magazines and websites since receiving her activation code. Her topics include classics, auto culture, motorsports, technology and new car reviews.