It was brought to life by Takarua Mutu from Mountain Bike Rotorua and Ra Cleave from engineering firm RippleTech and, as Mutu says, it’s an attempt to take the company's decarbonisation efforts a step further and do something a bit more meaningful.

The conversion features a 40kWh Leaf battery and 110kw Leaf motor and, come December, it will be operating in the forest as a 4WD transport vehicle for bikers.

Rather than send vehicles that are nearing the end of their life to the scrap heap, Mutu says there is an opportunity to revive them, just as Mike Casey did with his 1989 Toyota ‘electrolux’.

“I’m supposed to give it up for work, but I love it,” he says. “It’s the first electric vehicle I’ve owned and I feel like I’ve started at the top.”

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