The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
'I'm a bogan and I have no problem with the bastardisation of motor vehicles. You can stick whatever motor you like into whatever else you like.' Antz Davies, you are a true boganic Bright Spark and we salute you because it's the bogans that we need to be convincing! Davies is the main brain behind Watt Rods, a Lower Hutt company that converts old cars to electric. "Any and all vehicles, old or new, four wheels or two, big or small, on road or off, fully customised to your requirements."
Just like Mike Casey's electric Hilux, the electrolux, the Mitsubishi ute in this video has had a Nissan Leaf motor added. Rather than going to the scrap yard, they can give these old timers a new lease of life.
There are some who seem opposed to EVs for ideological reasons. But for the mechanically minded, EVs are awesome. There's more torque, more acceleration, more comfort and less danger to those driving them.
He admits it isn't meant to make financial sense (buy a car that was meant to be an EV from the start if you want to save money, he says), but it does make emotional sense and there's growing interest in electric retrofits.
It would certainly help if some of the rules were changed to make it easier and cheaper for more people to do these conversions because at the moment it's largely only the keen beans who have the commitment - and the capital - to do it.
Whether you're looking for an electric fruit picker, a farm workhorse, a high-end golf cart, a food and beverage hauler, a mobility scooter or a fold-up e-bike, Barry Hillyer could be the man you need to talk to. The E-motors showroom in Queenstown is home to an impressive collection of smaller electric machines and, while the big electric stuff like diggers and loaders creates plenty of attention, the small end of town is where the rubber is hitting the road in many other markets, where a lot of the innovation is happening and where the options are increasingly making economic sense.
Read moreDownload