Ian Wright: Changing the world, one powertrain at a time.

Congratulations to Ian Wright for winning a 2017 Kea World Class New Zealand award in recognition for his significant influence and contribution to the electric transportation industry. The founder of Wrightspeed, Ian is a serial entrepreneur with an impressive history of innovation within the automotive industry in the United States. He’s challenged the status quo and is one of the leading minds in electrical transportation. 

Originally from New Zealand, Ian went to Silicon Valley to follow his passion and achieve his ambitions with incredible results. After co-founding Tesla Motors in 2003, Ian then built the fastest street legal electric car in the world– the X1. Having proved electric vehicles could deliver on high-performance and efficiency his ambitions grew to solving EV economics and founding Wrightspeed.

At Wrightspeed, Ian set out to deliver the most efficient range-extended electric vehicle powertrain, and leads the world in this technology.

“Imagine if one of the diesel engine manufacturers announced – we have just built a powertrain that can provide up to 60% fuel savings and a 60% reduction in emissions – wouldn’t that change the world? Well, that is exactly what we have done.” Ian Wright, CEO.

Most recently, Wrightspeed and NZ Bus have been working together to convert a significant number of its 1,100 buses in Auckland and Wellington with Ian’s powertrains - including the capital’s iconic trolleys.