Drive EV

Drive EV At Drive EV we are passionate about Electric Vehicles! We drive them, we sell them, we love them! Fo Drive EV is a dedicated 100% Electric Vehicle supplier.

We help Kiwi's out of their fossil fuelled vehicles into a smarter more cost effective way to get around.

One lovely Model 3 successfully re-homed to another happy customer ❤️🙏It’s going to be a long walk home to Taupo!!Who ca...
17/06/2026

One lovely Model 3 successfully re-homed to another happy customer ❤️🙏

It’s going to be a long walk home to Taupo!!

Who can guess where this shiny high power charging spot is 🤔🤔

A beautiful sunrise in the Capital this morning 🌅Steve’s on a delivery mission to Christchurch in this super Long Range ...
16/06/2026

A beautiful sunrise in the Capital this morning 🌅

Steve’s on a delivery mission to Christchurch in this super Long Range Tesla Model 3!

Taupo to Wellington was a breeze with no stops needed and after waking up with a full charge Picton to Christchurch should be much the same.

Cold early morning at the Taupo Superchargers this morning!Ned and Steve went to Tokoroa to go look at yet another lifti...
15/05/2026

Cold early morning at the Taupo Superchargers this morning!

Ned and Steve went to Tokoroa to go look at yet another lifting thing! This time they ended up with a 3.5T forklift to help out with the ever filling lockup/wrecking yard....

Turns out that when you go from moving the off leaf battery to having a rack full of EV batteries and now a lockup full of EVs for parts, you need an ever increasing lifting capacity!

This should help us in a few areas, and I don't think many people regret buying forklifts, they usually regret not getting them sooner so let's hope that's the same here!

Now comes the important job of naming it though, what have you got!

12/05/2026

We have some very exciting news for owners of Japanese-imported Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles!

We’ve recently discovered that cars on the latest software version (2026.14.3) can now perform their own NZ Navigation map updates directly in the car. No special tools needed, just the car and a Wi-Fi connection.

Previously this could only be done at Tesla or Drive EV, but now you can do it yourself at home by following a few simple steps.

Check out this short video that walks you through how to change your fresh-off-the-boat Japanese Tesla Model 3 from Japanese to English and install the local New Zealand maps.

This is a big step forward for imported Model 3s and Model Ys — and it can all be done in your garage!

It’s frozen window time in Taupo 🥶🥶🥶
22/04/2026

It’s frozen window time in Taupo 🥶🥶🥶

Bit of a battery shuffle at Drive EV!Red Dwarf gets 20% more range,P85D gets a 90 pack for faster charging,That leaves a...
17/04/2026

Bit of a battery shuffle at Drive EV!

Red Dwarf gets 20% more range,
P85D gets a 90 pack for faster charging,
That leaves a spare 85 for a customer with a dead battery,
And the dead battery gets pulled down to cell level and they get reused for e-motorbikes!

And all that from one written off car. So much for these things getting stacked up in a field somewhere to be a hazardous waste right!?

If you have an older 85kwh Tesla, they are prone to water ingress into the battery. Why?The seal around the HV connector...
17/04/2026

If you have an older 85kwh Tesla, they are prone to water ingress into the battery. Why?
The seal around the HV connector gets brittle and literally turns to dust when you touch it. Also the fuse over is made of steel and rust.

We carry new of both, and not unreasonable to get inspected really. A dead 85kwh pack could cost you over 30k to replace with Tesla, so spending an hour checking it isn't a bad investment once in a while!

What do you think, friendly Bookface followers? 🤔🤔Hot! Or Not! ??It’s the internet! Time to make your voice heard 😄 Our ...
16/04/2026

What do you think, friendly Bookface followers? 🤔🤔

Hot! Or Not! ??

It’s the internet! Time to make your voice heard 😄 Our team seem to be 50/50 on this one.

Just been traded in yesterday, 2021 Model 3 with a wrap “Burn Maroon”.

Tesla 100kWh battery repair.We don't do them a LOT, we do do them frequently enough we're pretty good at getting these t...
15/04/2026

Tesla 100kWh battery repair.

We don't do them a LOT, we do do them frequently enough we're pretty good at getting these things stripped apart and fixed up.

Basically some of the internal connections will break so the the BMS can't keep track of the pack properly, so we open it up (see how many screws there are!?) and then we manually fix and reinforce all 448 connections inside the battery by hand and glue it back together.

We obviously make sure we pressure test it as well to be sure we sealed everything properly, and then its ready to go back in the car and back to the customer.

New battery is ~65k from Tesla, our fix is a much smaller single digit percentage of that price!

Don't get scared by these old Teslas, we will keep these older S and X cars on the road for longer than you'd imagine!

Edit:
This got shared a few times and keep getting told a new pack isn't 65k. We are in New Zealand, that was the price we got multiple times form Tesla over the years for a new 100kwh pack. Is that a stupid price? Yes! That's why we repair them for less than 1/10th the cost of what it would cost here to get a new one. Is that the current price? Not sure, we haven't checked. I know a 90 pack a few weeks ago was quoted at 32k NZ so maybe the 100s have come down as well, but still too expensive to think of replacing vs just fixing them. The fixed ones are also far less likely to break in the future as we reinforce every connection that's prone to failure.

Hope that keeps some of you from immediately complaining about the prices weve been given here in NZ.

8 hours to go!! Someone is going to buy a LEAF today, who and for how much is what we are all waiting to find out 🍿⚡️How...
12/04/2026

8 hours to go!!

Someone is going to buy a LEAF today, who and for how much is what we are all waiting to find out 🍿⚡️

How exciting!

We managed to perfectly time the auction to finish right in the middle of a cyclone 😅

Good luck to all who those who are bidding this evening 🙏

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/nissan/leaf/listing/5867163984

Address

60 Tuwharetoa Street
Taupo Town District
3330

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+64275210429

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