Fancy a New Zealand-made EV? Here's your chance!

Friday, 15 April 2022

This little cutie could be the first ever fully electric car built in New Zealand.

Every now and again a real gem appears on Trade Me, whether it’s a reasonably priced BMW E30 or a $700k HSV GTS-R W1. This one is a little different, being the earliest example we’ve seen of a Kiwi-built electric car, one that was actually intended to go to mass production.

It doesn’t have a name, but according to the listing, it is one of eight complete cars built by Timaru engineer and inventor, Donald MacConachie. Only a couple got to this level, so this is probably more of a running prototype than anything else.

The cabin is in surprisingly good nick, and the lightning bolt in the doors is just brilliant.

The body is made from fibreglass, pressed in Washdyke by a local contractor, while the car rides on a shortened Triumph Herald chassis with Morris 1100 rear suspension. Apparently, MacConachie had the moulds ready for production of thousands of these things, but something (probably money) got in the way before that could happen.

Two electric motors originally designed for electric forklifts power the car, one per rear wheel, fed by six 12-volt lead-acid batteries. Everything seems to be connected by a spaghetti of HT leads, along with what looks to be a light bulb. A system status indicator, perhaps?

Six lead-acid batteries and about a dozen HT leads feed power to two motors.

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While six lead-acid batteries don’t exactly inspire long road trips, the car was designed to accommodate a Briggs and Stratton 5kVa generator under the hood. That’s why there’s still an exhaust pipe.

The car actually looks to be in quite good condition. There are awesome lightning bolts embossed in the bonnet and doors, and despite the slightly janky design – being built in 1970, safety was clearly an afterthought – there’s a lot of charm to the old EV. Especially with those gauges and dials, which all EVs on sale today should have.

Stuff contacted the seller, who said that he saw it running while up on jack stands when he bought it ten years ago. He was unsure if it still moves, but there’s a chance it only needs some rusted cables replacing to get it going again.

Of course, you could put a lot more time and money into the project and slot some ex-Leaf lithium-ion batteries into the chassis along with a modern controller and keep the old electronics just for show.

We also contacted Waka Kotahi NZTA to see if their records showed anything about the car, which was road registered at one point, but haven’t heard back.