Kiwi EV sold for $10k

One of the first Kiwi-made electric vehicles, described by the seller on Trade Me as a 1970 EV and “an amazing piece of NZ motoring history”, has sold to an undisclosed buyer for $10,150.

The listing describes the EV as “the brainchild of Timaru engineer and inventor Donald MacConachie” – although there’s debate about the surname spelling, including a social media post that it’s ‘McConachy’.

“This is one of maybe eight complete cars he built, with the intention of mass producing them for the Kiwi market,” the Trade Me description adds.

The fibreglass bodies were apparently made in Washdyke and the cars used a shortened Triumph Herald chassis as their base, plus Morris 1100 rear suspension and belt drive to two electric motors driving the back wheels.

It had 72 volts of power provided originally by six lead-acid batteries which some suggest could be substituted by lithium-ion batteries.

The motors were made by an electric forklift company, according to the description which adds it also originally had a Briggs and Stratton 5kVa generator mounted under the hood as a “range extender”, with the exhaust, mounts and auto start switch gear for it still in place.

The unnamed EV was road registered and even had lightning bolts in the bonnet and doors.

This one was probably a running prototype, Stuff reports.

Chat on the Trade Me site suggests Tesla chief executive Elon Musk might have shown interest in the sale, while several car museums could also have been interested.