Step into a world where luxury and security are seamlessly intertwined, where every drive, every journey, is elevated by premium pleasure, precision, perfection and protection. Texas Armoured Direct stands at the pinnacle of armouredluxury, delivering more than just vehicles. The company offers a lifestyle where elegance, performance, and uncompromising protection travel hand in hand. With a global reach and a flawless reputation among heads of state, very high-net worth individuals, executives, and celebrities, Texas Armoured Direct is redefining what it means to travel with prestige, pleasure and protection. In this interview with Paul Obanua, Chairman of Texas Armoured Direct, who drives the vision and passion of the Rhodium45 Ultra Luxury Series Vehicles, talks about the world’s most exquisite bulletproof cars, each a masterpiece of design and engineering, curated for those who demand nothing less than the best and purest. Obanua discloses the U.S.-based company’s mission to make ultra luxury armoured vehicles mainstream across the globe. He has the sense, science, and space to make that happen…
What inspired Rhodium45 ultra-luxury armoured supercars?
What inspired Rhodium45 Ultra-luxury Amoured Supercars is that we’ve been into amoured bulletproof cars: BR6-level ballistic-resistant bulletproof cars for some time but we also discovered there there’s a niche market of people that they just don’t want to be in another SUV that looks like secret service SUV; something that is clunky and all of that and that’s not what we do actually. What we do at Texas Armoured Direct, which is the parent’s company, we customise Cadillac Escalade 2025, for example, Mercedes Benz G63, Lexus LX600, Range Rover Autobiography, or Range Rover SV, as we customise them to become BR6-level bulletproof, meaning that they can withstand and they absorb energy from high caliber bullets, hand grenade, et cetera.
But then, there’s still this other niche market we discovered that they just don’t want to stop there, they want the finer things of life this market demands that their cars look like they are private jets their cars interior the comfort of their cars are as good as they are mega yachts they are private jets and so on. So, that market exists and we start offering that services as well. But then we still did not want to stop there. We said okay if this market exists, we’re going to serve it. Because what exists out there currently is either your high-end cars are bulletproof or some people buy customized interior high-end cars as well; luxury finish, ultra-luxury finish but not what we offer. So, we are at the intersection of high-end luxury finish with elect electronics intelligence in the car with added advantage of the assist-level bulletproof which I call life insurance before the facts. You know how the life insurance policy operates. Life insurance policies are after the facts, after the eventualities.
But the BR6-level armoured protection is life insurance before the facts. That’s how we view it. So, if you’re getting all this ultra-luxury, high-end electronics intelligent smart automation in your car we just believe it is only natural for you to also be protected. That is what we also found out from our clients. They want that. So, they want protection. They want the luxury that matches the luxury level of their private jets, yachts, and their homes. That’s what inspired to go in that direction.
But we are not stopping at that. We are looking at a bigger picture. The bigger picture is, how do we at Rhodium45 ultra-luxury amoured cars make bulletproofing mainstream? There was a time seatbelt were only for race car drivers. Then, he became mainstream, and then it became a regulation issue. It now became a government-mandated feature in cars and you’re required to actually wear it. So was airbag. The airbags were meant for rich guys. But from there it became a special, added feature in luxury cars. From a special, added feature in luxury, the airbag has gone mainstream.
Who says bulletproofing of a car cannot become mainstream? Who says cars cannot form standard BR6-level armoured vehicles. That is the solution we are trying to provide. We are working with research labs here in the U.S. and some universities. Additionally, we about to come up with armoured cars manufactured to be armouredcars; not customising on the chassis of existing vehicles like we do today. We’re working from customisation [which we do currently by customising the chassis of Escalade SP, Range Rover SV, Lexus LX600, Mercedes Benz G63 AMG, etc.] to rolling out, in a couple of years, our own chassis which is bulletproof. From there we begin to work on bringing the price down. Therefore, it will come to a point that when you can afford Mercedes Benz S-Class, S580, you can afford our cars that will come as standard bulletproof vehicles. Bulletproof will be a standard feature just like the seatbelts and the airbags. That’s the big difference and we have the technology already.
The question is why doesn’t that exist? Why is not mainstream today? One, it is very expensive and it is heavy. Therefore, it is not being mass produced. So, we want to be the ones that will introduce these standard armoured vehicles at scale to reduce the retail price and the cost of production. Secondly, why do we want to produce such cars as standard from the chassis level? We’ve found the technological solutions to reduce the weight. The challenge with BR6 armoured cars is the weight. That is why it hard to armour electric vehicles because the batteries in EV vehicles are already very heavy. So, you don’t want to put on those vehicles another 2,000 pounds of weight. But we have solution, a composite solution that can bring that weight down to 500 pounds. Five hundred pounds is just about four people in a car which any car can support. We have that solution now. What we are working on now is to produce it as OEM [original equipment manufacturer]. That’s the big story here. The opportunity we have is that we are based here in North America, precisely in the U.S. Having this operation in the U.S. gives us a lot of advantages. It is not easy for manufacturers of cars to break into the U.S. market. Besides, the U.S. market is still the holy grail for every automobile manufacturer. Until you export to the U.S., you’ve not hit your sweet spot as an automobile manufacturer. The U.S. is the jackpot for every automobile manufacturer. Therefore, we are excited that we are a U.S. company. We also leveraging scientific breakthrough in lighter-weight armoured vehicles with the same energy-absorbing capacity of a BR6-level of an armoured vehicle. Let me emphasise that we’re already working with some universities and research labs on that to now deploy this at scale where we can reduce the weight from 2000 pounds to 500 pounds. In fact, we’re even working towards 200 pounds of weight using composite materials. It’s even a solution that can withstand armour-piercing bullets. But we’re not going to go as far as that. We’re going to go as far as BR6-level that is civilian-approved.
You talk about Comfort. What are the specifics people can look forward to?
We have 42-inch TV that partitions [recessive partition] you from the driver. You have motion-friendly stylings. You have 360-view camera. It’s a total command-and-control centre you have there actually. You have your mini-iPad where everything is controlled. The vehicle has a champagne regenerator; in some cases, even coffee maker, surround sound system and fibre optic skylight. The automobile has luxury finish Italian leather. You can collapse the seat to become a bed. Anything you can imagine is inside the car.
How long does it take to build this vehicle?
It takes 90 days, from going through armouring customisation to BR6-level armouringwhich protects you from eight calibre bullet, hand grenade, and the fuel tank is also protected. After that, it will undergo the ultra-luxury finish of the interior. But this is not the big story. The big story is that we’re bringing to the world of making it a standard for your car to be bulletproof. What we do now is just customising existing chassis. We are in the next couple of years going to launch OEM-brand Rhodium45 bulletproof armoured cars. We will build it from the ground up. That’s the big story. Right now, we’re offering it as custom product.
Will you like to talk more about your customised cars being ‘life insurance before the fact’?
You know how insurance policy works: the policy becomes effective when one dies. That’s when the compensation is paid. The protection is not on the deceased. It is on the family. In this car of this armoured car, it will prevent its owner against certain eventualities. While life insurance offers some protection for the deceased’s loved ones, Rhodium45 Ultra-luxury Armoured Supercar protects you from dying from attacks or some certain eventualities -anything can kill you due to external attacks via firearms. This is just an analogy to drive the point home. That’s why we call it life insurance before the facts. We use that as some form of analogy to underscore the fact that you’re protected. An individual who’s living in opulence should get the needed protection. For example, you have more gun violence in America than anywhere else in the world. An example is the epidemic of road rage. I have been accosted; it’s an experience I still remember. On doesn’t need to have an axe to grind with anybody to be shot anywhere in the world these days. One could run into the wrong guy. It could be a stray bullet. That’s why we’re thinking about the big solution. The big solution is that we’re looking at being part of that 1% of the number of cars on the road being bulletproof, and then we can move down the line of bringing in mainstream. Our commitment is to produce bulletproof cars with the view of making bulletproof cars mainstream, just like seatbelts were once a rarity, they became mainstream. Airbags were once a rarity, and they became mainstream, and we have found a solution to make that happen.
You’ve been in the automobile industry for some decades. How has this business evolved for you?
I’ve been into, I’ve been into transportation for a while. I mean, a lady once asked me because I’m a member of Eastern Polo Club. I also tried to learn how to fly at some point. So, a fellow member asked me, ‘What do you like about Polo?’ I said, ‘I love everything that moves.’ Every time she sees me, she’s ‘Oh, that’s the guy that loves everything that moves.’ I love movement. I’m very kinetic-friendly. I love cars first of all. So, my first experience in the automobile business was in transportation. I used to have a haulage company back in Nigeria, back in 2005. I had a big operation. I hauled for Lafarge. I hauled for Dangote. I was helped by Alhaji Lanre Shittu, may his soul rest in peace.
Back in the day he was like my mentor. I bought all my trucks, Mack trucks, from him. trucks, back in the days. I had over 25 Mack trucks. We did that business; it was growing and then we moved on. When I relocated to the U.S., we saw another gap in the transportation space per delivery and rideshare by making automobiles available to drivers based on rentals after we found a gap that some individuals did not have the right vehicles for rideshare or delivery. We did that for a while and moved up the value chain. We decided to start going into manufacturing; or, let’s say production. Now, it’s not just providing transport service but providing the equipment to serve. Where we are today at Texas Armoured Direct and moving into Rhodium45, we’re in the custom-manufacturing of bulletproof cars, using the chassis of high-end cars.
We’re now in manufacturing—custom-manufacturing, that’s where we are now. But the next step which is Rhodium45 Ultra-luxury Armoured Supercars, we will be OEM. We’ll not be using the chassis of other high-end vehicles. We’ll be producing our own chassis and these will come pre-built as bulletproof chassis. That is with a view and goal and aim of making bulletproof vehicles mainstream. We want to pioneer that.
Do you provide after-sales service, spare parts, and maintenance support to customers in export destinations such as Nigeria? If so, what does your service entail for those markets?
Absolutely. We partner local service providers in Nigeria who are fully capable of delivering after-sales support, from supplying genuine parts to handling any necessary repairs or maintenance. Additionally, we are active in trading. For instance, if you’ve purchased a car from us, you have the option to trade it in for a new one after 24 months. This is similar to the certified pre-owned programs we run in the U.S., and we can certify vehicles right there in Nigeria for resale in that market.
What’s your market base like?
We custom-manufacture Rhodium45 right now. We supply to some heads of state, ultra-high-net worth individuals, celebrities. Currently, U.S. is our market. We also export to Mexico, Brazil and of course, Nigeria. Nigeria is a very interesting market to us and we’re very serious about and interested in that market. But it is not our biggest export market. The United States is our main market. We’re a U.S.-based company. The U.S. is still the largest consumer of bulletproof vehicles. Rhodium45 means ultra-luxury and bulletproof. We’re happy to be sharing this revelation with THISDAY as our media launch in the U.S. will be coming up in a few months’ time.
Why did you choose to put your face to the Rhodium45 brand?
Because I believe in what I am doing. I believe in the big solution Rhodium45 is going to bring to the world. This is something I am proud to identify with. In a few years’ time, everybody will be happy to associate with that name because once something is great, you have to identify with it. When you’re doing something great, the least you can do is to identify with it. That is how to prove to the world that you believe in it. You cannot say something is great and you can’t identify with it.
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