By Justin Crooks, Founder of EV East
Finding electric vehicles in China isn’t difficult. Finding the right ones for New Zealand takes a bit more work.
There are thousands of manufacturers, trading companies and products to choose from. Specifications can look impressive, photos can look even better, and almost anything can be branded with your logo.
But a good-looking catalogue isn’t enough. The real questions are who built the vehicle, how well they support it and whether it will do what New Zealand customers actually need it to do.
It starts with the job
We try to begin with the problem rather than the product.
That might be someone needing a stable scooter for a hilly neighbourhood, an off-road vehicle that can cross grass and gravel, or a farm looking for a quiet electric work vehicle with useful towing capacity.
Once the job is clear, we can look at what the vehicle genuinely needs: power, range, ground clearance, suspension, payload, charging, weather protection or the ability to carry another person.
It’s easy to be distracted by a long feature list. A vehicle can have plenty of gadgets and still miss the basics.
The specification sheet is only the start
Specifications help us compare products, but they also raise questions.
How was the range tested? Is the quoted power continuous or peak output? Does the towing figure reflect real testing? What sort of battery cells are being used? Are the brakes and suspension suitable for the vehicle’s weight and intended terrain?
Sometimes the answers are straightforward. Other times they take a few rounds of questions, technical documents, photos and conversations with the factory.
This is where speaking Chinese and understanding how business works there is useful. It lets me communicate directly with the people involved rather than relying entirely on translated brochures or messages passed through several layers.
Visiting the factory tells you more
I spent more than a decade living and working in China and still travel there to meet suppliers and visit factories.
A factory visit gives you a better sense of what sits behind the finished product. You can see how the vehicles are assembled, meet the people responsible for them and get a feel for how the company responds when you ask detailed questions.
It also helps separate manufacturers that are interested in building a long-term export relationship from those mainly focused on making the next sale.
No factory is perfect, and a visit doesn’t guarantee there will never be a problem. What it can show is whether the supplier is open, technically capable and willing to work through issues when they arise.
“Made in China” doesn’t tell you the quality
Some people still hear that a vehicle is made in China and immediately assume it must be low quality. I understand where that perception comes from, but it no longer reflects the full picture.
Most mobility scooters—and a large share of the world’s small electric vehicles, including scooters and buggies—are now made in China, often under many different brand names. Avoiding Chinese manufacturing altogether isn’t really the useful question. The better question is: who made it, what standard was it built to and what components went into it?
Having lived and worked in China for many years and been through hundreds of factories, I’ve seen both ends of the spectrum. China produces plenty of cheap, poor-quality goods, but it also produces some of the world’s best technology and highly sophisticated vehicles. Often those products come from the same industrial regions and supply chains.
The difference is in the choices being made. Costs can be cut by using generic components, cheaper battery cells, lighter materials or weaker quality control. That may produce a lower purchase price, but it can also create problems with performance, reliability and parts support later.
That isn’t the approach we take. We look closely at the important components, ask where they come from and work with suppliers who are prepared to meet the standard we expect. We also develop New Zealand variants and, where it makes sense, fit or source some components locally to better suit our market.
So for us, country of origin is only the starting point. Quality comes down to the manufacturer, the specification, the components, the quality control and the importer standing behind the finished vehicle.
Products often need changes
A vehicle designed for one market may not be quite right for another.
New Zealand has its own electrical standards, charging requirements, terrain, weather and customer expectations. Instructions and labelling need to make sense here. Parts need to be identified. Sometimes accessories, tyres, suspension settings or other components need to change.
We work with suppliers to raise those points and improve products over time. Some changes are made before a vehicle arrives. Others come from testing demo vehicles and listening to customers once they are being used in real New Zealand conditions.
That feedback loop is important. Product selection isn’t a one-off decision—it continues after the first shipment.
We also look at what comes after the sale
A vehicle may perform well when it is new, but we also need to think about how it will be supported later.
Can we get controllers, chargers, brake components and body parts? Are wiring diagrams or technical information available? Will the factory help diagnose an unusual problem? Can batteries be replaced without making the vehicle uneconomic to keep?
These questions don’t make for exciting advertising, but they matter a great deal to owners.
A cheaper vehicle isn’t always better value if parts are difficult to source or the supplier disappears when help is needed.
Testing the claims
Where possible, we bring in a demo vehicle before committing more widely. That gives us a chance to see how it drives, charges and handles the sort of terrain or work it is intended for.
It also lets potential customers try it and tell us what they think. Farmers, mobility users, golfers and commercial operators often notice different things because they approach the vehicle from their own experience.
We don’t expect every vehicle to suit every customer, and we don’t assume every promising product belongs in the range. Sometimes the right decision is to ask for changes, choose another model or simply wait until the product is ready.
Relationships matter
Good supplier relationships aren’t about accepting whatever a factory tells us. They make it easier to ask harder questions, solve problems and keep improving the product.
Getting face to face with manufacturers makes a huge difference. Visiting the factory, sitting down with the people behind the product and taking the time to build trust creates a very different relationship from exchanging a few emails and placing an order online.
When that relationship is strong, communication is more open and it becomes easier to work through technical questions, request changes and get help when something unexpected comes up. In my experience, that personal connection is a particularly important part of doing business well in China.
Our role is to sit between the manufacturer and the customer: understand what the factory can build, understand what people here actually need, and help close the gap between the two.
That takes longer than choosing something from a catalogue, but it gives us a much better chance of bringing in electric vehicles that are practical, supportable and genuinely useful in New Zealand.
