Electric cars: how do we close the gender gap?
13th March, London: Episode four of the new Auto Trader podcast Women in the driving seat, hosted by Editorial Director, divorced mum of two and award-winning motoring journalist Erin Baker is released today. The series aims to rip up the rule book on the female-empowerment narrative by sharing personal as well as professional experiences, examining the space where both collide, and the challenges, fears and successes happen.
Episode four covers a variety of topics including why She’s electric – discussing how we can bring electric vehicles and women together, the importance of selfish altruism in reframing sustainability and we reveal how to found your own business – spoiler, just live with your mother!
All episodes in the series feature a Podcast Pit Stop – a quick fire round covering the professional and personal including; Lark or owl? Circuit or circuits? Phone by the bed or phone downstairs?
Join Erin as she puts two electrifying changemakers in the driving seat.
This podcast episode contains reference to modern-day slavery, human trafficking and exploitations such as rape, due to Mel’s work with charity International Justice Mission.
Podcast preview
Melanie Lane:
“Leadership with blinkers on… if you try and focus on everything, then you focus on nothing”
“There is a better narrative …that will appeal It’s much more about connect energy, it’s not about the box, it’s about the transition… there’s a much more human way of telling that story.”
“One of the key learnings for me, having worked in energy transition, regardless of sector, is that there are no easy answers to any of the energy transition challenges, No one person, no one segment, no one person, no one company - no one slant is the answer, so you need to mobilise so many different parts of society, community, industry to come together to solve, it’s one of the reasons why I love the industry.”
“If you get under the skin, women really like driving but they like what driving gives them – the freedom.”
“The energy transition, we talk about it like this big thing and it feels too global and too big and too out there but if you can bring it back to community and home and people and family, that matters.”
“It’s more the mindset…curiosity, innovation, resilience, collaboration – those are core skills.”
Nicole Melillo Shaw:
“I do find it hard sometimes to put the phone down because there’s always something to do…there’s a fire over here, you just have to learn to ignore it… there’s never not going to be fires everywhere.”
“It went down the kind of emperors’ new clothes thing, even now I do a test drive and I get out and someone says ‘isn’t it completely game changing’ and I’m no car lover – I’ll get out and think ‘it’s a car!’”
“Show that when the data shows these problems don’t exist anymore, we’ll move on”
“This is about getting everyone to net zero… it’s not just EVs.”
“By flipping the narrative and actually talking about how you’re going to feel when you make these [sustainable] changes… bring it back down to the personal.”
“We were getting women into the room and [running focus groups] …getting them to imagine a future world… you get these lovely grandmas who are like ‘oh I know its’s supposed to be about my grandchildren but I just want to have a good time now!’”
“There’s obviously an obsession right now with wellness and self-care and all those things at the moment, one of the things that can make you feel the best about yourself is going out there and doing something - but at the moment it’s very hard to understand where you should go and what you should do.”
“Tip: Live with your mother because without that I wouldn’t be doing any of this – thanks very much mum.”
“Don’t hide your ideas, don’t hide everything to yourself, get out there and talk about it because there will be people out there who want to help you.”
Auto Trader’s new podcast Women in the driving seat releases new episodes every Thursday.
Notes to editors
ABOUT ERIN BAKER
Erin Baker is an award-winning motoring journalist and Editorial Director of Auto Trader. She writes a monthly driving column for Vogue, is a World Car of the Year judge, consults for Goodwood and hosts She's Electric, a national roadshow bringing women and electric cars together. Erin is passionate about narrowing the gender gap, both in the automotive industry itself and between car brands and female consumers, through more targeted language, marketing and experiences. She is a divorced mother of two boys.
ABOUT REBECCA DAY
Bex is the CEO of Still Curious and Co-founder of She's Electric. She started a Save The World Club from her garden shed when she was eight and despite a detour through the worlds of luxury fashion and automotive, she is still trying to channel her climate anxiety into action. She has a five year old son called Redford and lives in Stroud with her mother because she is a glutton for dungarees and judgement.
ABOUT MELANIE LANE
Mel is the CEO of Pod Point, formerly CEO of NewMotion/ Shell Recharge Solutions. The last decade of her career has been spent working on challenges associated with the energy transition in different sectors. Since a young age she has had a passion for "making a difference" and spearheading change, and her current role gives her the opportunity to do that in spades. Outside of work she is a mum of three amazing children, loves the outdoors and serves on the board of one of the worlds largest anti-human trafficking and modern day slavery organisations.
ABOUT AUTO TRADER
Auto Trader Group plc is the UK’s largest automotive platform. It listed on the London Stock Exchange in March 2015 and is a member of the FTSE 100 Index.
Auto Trader’s purpose is Driving Change Together. Responsibly. Auto Trader is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive culture, it aims to build stronger partnerships with its customers and use its voice and influence to drive more environmentally friendly vehicle choices.
With the largest number of car buyers and the largest choice of trusted stock, Auto Trader’s marketplace sits at the heart of the UK car buying process. That marketplace is built on an industry-leading technology and data platform, which is increasingly used across the automotive industry. Auto Trader is continuing to bring more of the car buying journey online, creating an improved buying experience, whilst enabling all its retailer partners to sell vehicles online.
Auto Trader publishes a monthly used car Retail Price Index which is based on pricing analysis of circa 800,000 unique vehicles. The same data that powers the Index is used by the Office for National Statistics to make the UK’s official measures of inflation more robust, as well as the Bank of England to feed the broader UK economic indicators.
For more information, please visit: plc.autotrader.co.uk
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