diff --git a/cmake/core.cmake b/cmake/core.cmake
index 266a5c92a27..ef98c4eccb3 100644
--- a/cmake/core.cmake
+++ b/cmake/core.cmake
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ endif()
 add_custom_command(
     OUTPUT ${MBGL_GENERATED}/include/mbgl/util/version.hpp
     DEPENDS ${MBGL_VERSION_DEPS}
-    COMMAND ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/scripts/build-version.py ${MBGL_GENERATED}
+    COMMAND ${NodeJS_EXECUTABLE} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/scripts/build-version.js ${MBGL_GENERATED}
     VERBATIM
 )
 
diff --git a/scripts/build-version.js b/scripts/build-version.js
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..eb8a00f72c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/build-version.js
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+var path = require('path');
+var fs = require('fs');
+var util = require('util');
+var mkdirp = require('mkdirp');
+var execSync = require('child_process').execSync;
+
+const DEFAULT_TAG = [0, 0, 0];
+const DEFAULT_REV = 'unknown';
+
+function is_git_repo() {
+    try {
+        execSync('git rev-parse', { stdio: ['ignore', 'ignore', 'ignore'] });
+        return true;
+    } catch(err) {
+        return false;
+    }
+}
+
+
+function parse_tag(raw_tag) {
+    return raw_tag.replace(/[^0-9.]/g, '').split('.').map(parseFloat).slice(0, 3);
+}
+
+function parse_rev(raw_rev) {
+    return raw_rev.substr(0, 8);
+}
+
+var output_dir = process.argv[2];
+
+if (!output_dir) {
+    console.warn('No output directory given.');
+    console.warn('Usage: %s [output dir]', path.basename(process.argv[1]));
+    process.exit(1);
+}
+
+if (is_git_repo()) {
+    var raw_tag = execSync('git describe --tags --always --abbrev=0').toString().trim();
+    var raw_rev = execSync('git rev-parse HEAD').toString().trim();
+
+    // When they're identical, the "git describe" can't find a tag and reports the rev instead.
+    if (raw_tag == raw_rev) {
+        var tag = DEFAULT_TAG
+        var rev = parse_rev(raw_rev)
+    } else {
+        var tag = parse_tag(raw_tag)
+        var rev = parse_rev(raw_rev)
+    }
+}  else {
+    var tag = DEFAULT_TAG;
+    var rev = DEFAULT_REV;
+}
+
+console.log('Tag: %d.%d.%d', tag[0], tag[1], tag[2]);
+console.log('Rev: %s', rev);
+
+var header = '// NOTE: DO NOT CHANGE THIS FILE. IT IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED.\n' +
+    '#pragma once\n' +
+    '\n' +
+    '#define MBGL_VERSION 0x' + (tag[0] << 16 | tag[1] << 8 | tag[2]).toString(16) + '\n' +
+    '#define MBGL_VERSION_STRING "' + tag[0] + '.' + tag[1] + '.' + tag[2] + '"\n' +
+    '#define MBGL_VERSION_MAJOR ' + tag[0] + '\n' +
+    '#define MBGL_VERSION_MINOR ' + tag[1] + '\n' +
+    '#define MBGL_VERSION_PATCH ' + tag[2] + '\n' +
+    '#define MBGL_VERSION_REV "' + rev + '"\n' +
+    '\n' +
+    'namespace mbgl {\n' +
+    'namespace version {\n' +
+    '\n' +
+    'extern const int major, minor, patch;\n' +
+    'extern const char *revision;\n' +
+    'extern const char *string;\n' +
+    'extern const unsigned int number;\n' +
+    '\n' +
+    '} // namespace version\n' +
+    '} // namespace mbgl\n';
+
+var header_path = path.join(output_dir, 'include/mbgl/util/version.hpp')
+mkdirp.sync(path.dirname(header_path));
+fs.writeFileSync(header_path, header);
diff --git a/scripts/build-version.py b/scripts/build-version.py
deleted file mode 100755
index f4a8abb88e8..00000000000
--- a/scripts/build-version.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,81 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
-
-import sys, os, errno, re, subprocess
-
-DEFAULT_TAG = [0, 0, 0]
-DEFAULT_REV = 'unknown'
-
-def is_git_repo():
-    try:
-        subprocess.check_output("git rev-parse", shell=True)
-        return True
-    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as exc:
-        return False
-
-def parse_tag(raw_tag):
-    return map(int, re.sub("[^0-9.]", "", raw_tag).split('.'))
-
-def parse_rev(raw_rev):
-    return raw_rev[0:8]
-
-def mkdir_p(path):
-    try:
-        os.makedirs(path)
-    except OSError as exc: # Python >2.5
-        if exc.errno == errno.EEXIST and os.path.isdir(path):
-            pass
-        else: raise
-
-output_dir = sys.argv[1]
-
-if is_git_repo():
-    raw_tag = subprocess.check_output("git describe --tags --always --abbrev=0", shell=True)
-    raw_rev = subprocess.check_output("git rev-parse HEAD", shell=True)
-
-    # When they're identical, the "git describe" can't find a tag and reports the rev instead.
-    if raw_tag == raw_rev:
-        tag = DEFAULT_TAG
-        rev = parse_rev(raw_rev)
-    else:
-        tag = parse_tag(raw_tag)
-        rev = parse_rev(raw_rev)
-else:
-    tag = DEFAULT_TAG
-    rev = DEFAULT_REV
-
-tag = tag + [0, 0, 0]
-tag = tag[0:3]
-
-print "Tag: {0}".format(tag)
-print "Rev: {0}".format(rev)
-
-header = """// NOTE: DO NOT CHANGE THIS FILE. IT IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED.
-#pragma once
-
-#define MBGL_VERSION 0x{major:02x}{minor:02x}{patch:02x}
-#define MBGL_VERSION_STRING "{major}.{minor}.{patch}"
-#define MBGL_VERSION_MAJOR {major}
-#define MBGL_VERSION_MINOR {minor}
-#define MBGL_VERSION_PATCH {patch}
-#define MBGL_VERSION_REV "{rev}"
-
-namespace mbgl {{
-namespace version {{
-
-extern const int major, minor, patch;
-extern const char *revision;
-extern const char *string;
-extern const unsigned int number;
-
-}} // namespace version
-}} // namespace mbgl
-""".format(
-    major = tag[0],
-    minor = tag[1],
-    patch = tag[2],
-    rev = rev
-)
-
-header_path = os.path.join(output_dir, 'include/mbgl/util/version.hpp')
-mkdir_p(os.path.dirname(header_path))
-with open(header_path, 'w') as f: f.write(header)