A yellow Ford Fairlane parked on a wet pavement with a sunset in the background.

MEET EVIE.

She's a restored, refreshed, classic 1957 Ford Fairlane - fully electric, with plenty of grunt on a mission to enjoy Energy made Wonderful.

Evie turns heads wherever she goes. Find out more about NZ's most famous electric conversion.
WATCH THE MAKING OF EVIE

THE STORY BEHIND THE STAR

Evie comes from humble beginnings, she's been on the road for 60 years, but now there's something extra wonderful about her. We want Kiwis to think about electric vehicles in a wonderful new way so we've converted this classic old beauty and given her a new lease on life. View her makeover below.

THE MAKING OF EVIE

Watch how our classic 1957 Ford Fairlane was made into Evie, turning an old classic into the future. Energy was truly made wonderful.
Play Video
Video Length: 3m 04s

TIMELAPSE

Watch a timelapse of Evie being converted from an old classic into Evie, an electric vehicle with the same old charm.
Play Video
Video Length: 0m 59s
A raised hood of a Ford Fairline, showing batteries below.

WHAT’S UNDER THE HOOD

Evie's powered by a bus strength Siemens electric motor and 218 battery cells. Evie gets about 120km out of a full charge cruising around town and you won't hear her coming, she's super quiet. Wonderful!

  • Evie's a beautiful 1957 Ford Fairlane convertible with plenty of character.
  • She measures 2.2m wide, 5.5m long and weighs in at 2.2 tonnes.
  • Powered by 218 battery cells giving her a battery capacity of 50kWh, Evie can fast charge in under 2 hours.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE MYTHS

BATTERY MYTHS

If my battery runs out, it’s be hard to find a place to charge! With more than 500 charging stations across New Zealand, you can always find somewhere to stop and top-up. This handy map shows you’re nearest charging stations along your journey. View more info
If I buy an EV, I’ll have to keep replacing the battery every few years EV batteries are built to last. EV manufacturers are offering increasingly longer warranties on batteries of up to 10 years or more. If the batteries are taken care of the will last even longer. View more info
If I buy an EV, I’ll have to buy special charging equipment too Plug in at home, at work or anywhere you like. All you need is a 3 pin plug. 

PURCHASING MYTHS

Upfront cost vs long-term cost. EVs are more expensive to buy and more expensive to run EV’s are much cheaper to run than diesel or petrol vehicles at the equivalent of 40c per litre. As EVs become more popular, they become more affordable to buy. View more info
There’s hardly any EVs to buy in New Zealand There's plenty of EV makes to choose from, with Nissan, Audi, BMW, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen all actively selling EV’s across New Zealand. Rather than buying new you can also buy second hand.

THE SPECS MYTHS

EVs have limited range and aren’t reliable for everyday driving The average New Zealander travels less than 29km a day by car which is well within the 100km range of a typical EV.
*A Nissan Leaf, the most popular battery EV in New Zealand, has a range of up to 120km for its generation 1 model. Newer models have longer ranges and more high-end vehicles have much greater ranges. View more info
I’ve heard EVs are just as bad for the environment as other cars If you combine all the emissions produced when making the raw materials, battery and vehicle EV’s give off 60% less emissions over their life span than a petrol car. EV’s are also cheaper to run costing the equivalent of 30c a litre to fuel up. Did you know that 100% of the electricity that Mercury generates is renewable and 80% of New Zealand’s total electricity generation is as well? View more info