An Otago grandma has converted her 29-year-old car into an electric vehicle, which she charges with her own solar panels.
It took a couple of years and $24,000, but Rosemary Penwarden, 63, expects the car, named ‘Frida’, will pay for itself.
But she didn’t do it because of rising petrol prices.
“I suppose I should thank the oil companies, like Anadarko, NZ oil and gas, Shell, OMV, Beach Energy… these are all companies that me and my group Oil Free Otago have been opposing for many years,” she said.
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Rosemary Penwarden, 63, with her EV named Frida.
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“It motivated me to become independent of oil, and show them they’re not needed here.”
A renowned local activist, she said she’d been told her whole life what she could and couldn’t do.
Penwarden grew up in the 60s and 70s, in a time she said children, “particularly girls” were to be seen and not heard.
“It takes a long time to punch your way out of that… to say, I know what’s important.”
As much as she believed saving the planet demanded confronting the biggest polluters – almost half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions were likely linked to just 10 companies – in the meantime, independence from those companies was something she had control of.
With the help of friends who knew the industry, she got the parts she needed and the supervision required to convert an old Honda herself. It was her hands which dug out the old engine and put in the new.
She worked on it at the Valley Workshop, a co-operative in Dunedin’s North East Valley which she helped establish nearly six years ago. Its occupants included James Hardisty, owner of EV-lution, an EV car conversion business.
Sinead Gill/Stuff
Penwarden charges her home and car with the help of 27 solar panels.
“It [the car] sat in the workspace for close to two years, but once we got going on it, it probably took 8 to 10 months of pretty solid work,” she said.
She said her partner had to keep on top of her to ensure she’d take a break and go home for dinner.
“Once you get going on something like this, it’s just infectious. You can’t stop.”
There were 56 batteries in the back with an external charger, and 24 batteries in the front. The car could travel about 120 kilometers before it needed to be charged.
She said the setup would be similar in size to an early Nissan Leaf, which in 2010 was one of the first EVs to be available to the masses.
Available certainly didn’t mean cheap. In 2021, the cheapest new EV on the market was just under $50,000.
Penwarden’s conversion cost less than half of that, but she said it was still a privilege to pull off. Not just because she had the money, but knew the right people to “nag” for help.
“I had this plan that Dunedin could be the EV conversion capital of NZ… a lot of vehicles have been converted at the Valley Workshop, but it hasn’t turned into the big thing that I had in my head. But it’s going to happen, I’m sure of it.”
Sinead Gill/Stuff
Penwarden values her independence from the country’s largest polluters, going as far as to grow her own kai.
Hardisty said, although the long term benefits made up for the upfront costs, converting cars into EV remained a costly and complicated process.
He’d converted about 15 cars over the years, on top of helping others build or convert their own. He also helped people like Penwarden to set up their own solar panel system so charging it would eventually be cost-neutral.
“It’s great for the environment… you don’t have to worry about what’s happening in the world, if there is a war… if all the oil was to dry up tomorrow, we’d keep going,” he said .
Around 2010 he converted his Toyota Rav4 into an EV, and 12 years later it was running on the same battery.
Sinead Gill/Stuff
James Hardisty converts cars into EVs at his workshop in North East Valley, EV-lution.
“Because of this [truck] I’ve stopped 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere.”
Penwarden had lived in her small Waitati home for just a couple of years, and it was fully off the grid.
Much of her days were spent gardening, harvesting and wine-making. Her mokopuna (grandchildren) saw her way of life as normal – the 27 solar panels were no novelty.
“It feels really important. I feel like my job as a grandmother is to teach them practical skills.
“They’re going to need them.”
