Evans rose through the ranks of New Zealand and Australian junior motorsport with striking speed. He won the CIK Trophy of New Zealand in karting, then moved to Formula First in 2007. A season in Formula Ford in 2008 saw him take seven wins from twelve starts to claim the Winter Series championship at Manfield, and he was competitive in the national campaign the following year despite losing out to Richie Stanaway.
In Australia, Evans made his mark in Australian Formula Ford in 2009, becoming the youngest round winner in that championship's history when he won at Sandown Raceway. He finished runner-up in both the national and Victorian state championships.
He secured back-to-back New Zealand Toyota Racing Series titles in 2010 and 2011, claiming the first with Giles Motorsport. When he won the New Zealand Grand Prix in February 2011, he is believed to have become the youngest driver to win an international Grand Prix, doing so at age 16. He was also runner-up in the 2010 Australian Drivers' Championship despite missing three rounds.
Evans joined the MW Arden team for the 2011 GP3 Series, co-owned by Red Bull Racing principal Christian Horner and managed by Mark Webber. He won the feature race at Circuit de Catalunya but faded during the second half of the season to finish ninth overall. Retained for 2012, he was more consistent: wins at Spain, Valencia, and Hockenheim, combined with strong points finishes, were enough to clinch the championship over Daniel Abt by two points.
Evans moved to GP2 with Arden in 2013. Despite competing with food poisoning at the season opener in Sepang, he finished third in the second race and became the youngest GP2 driver to stand on the podium at age 18. In 2014, driving for the iSport-operated Russian Time team alongside Artem Markelov, he claimed his maiden GP2 win at Silverstone and added a second at Hockenheim — in GP2's 200th race — to finish fourth in the championship. He remained with Russian Time for 2015 before switching to Campos for 2016, taking a wet-weather feature-race win at the Austrian round.
On joining Jaguar Racing for the inaugural Formula E season with the team in 2016–17, Evans partnered Adam Carroll. His best result was a fourth place in Mexico City, which also gave Jaguar its first championship points in the series.
The 2018–19 season proved to be a breakthrough campaign. Evans scored points in each of the first seven races — the only driver that season to achieve this feat — before claiming his first Formula E victory at the Rome ePrix, holding off André Lotterer and Stoffel Vandoorne after a decisive move at the chicane. He finished the season fifth overall.
Evans continued to develop into a title contender. He won the Mexico City ePrix in 2019–20 with one of the largest winning margins in the series' history. In 2021–22, he won four races including back-to-back victories in Rome and took the championship runner-up position behind Stoffel Vandoorne, finishing 33 points adrift.
In the 2022–23 season, Evans added wins at São Paulo, Berlin, Rome, and London to take third in the standings. His 2023–24 campaign produced victories at Monaco and Shanghai, but he again fell short of the title, losing to Pascal Wehrlein by six points in a fourth consecutive season in championship contention.
The 2024–25 season brought wins at the São Paulo and Berlin rounds, but Evans finished 13th in the final standings. He helped Jaguar TCS Racing to second place in the constructors' classification alongside teammate Nick Cassidy. Evans announced his departure from Jaguar after the 2025–26 season, ending a tenure of approximately ten years with the British manufacturer's works team.
Evans attended Saint Kentigern College in Pakuranga, Auckland, before leaving at the end of 2010 to pursue his career overseas. His racing career has been supported financially by New Zealand entrepreneur Colin Giltrap, who has also backed fellow New Zealanders Scott Dixon, Chris van der Drift, and Brendon Hartley. His older brother Simon Evans is a former racing driver and was champion of the 2019–20 Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy season.
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