Episode 10 of Women in the driving seat, the Auto Trader podcast that shares both the personal and professional lives of women in the auto industry features Kate Tyrrell CEO of ChargeSafe and Antonia Stephenson Director of Operations & Finance for EV Battery Solutions, part of Cox Automotive. 
The conversation covers the vital world of electric cars – from batteries to charging, “I regularly run mine into the red – is that naughty?” As we find out, yes!
This episode will be available to listen to on all podcast platforms from Thursday 15th May.

London, 15th May, London: Episode 10 of the new Auto Trader podcast Women in the driving seat, hosted by Editorial Director, 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.

This episode we bust the biggest myths about EV batteries, from charging habits to long-term performance, revealing the harrowing experience that sparked the creation of ChargeSafe. The episode leads us all the way to what happens at the end of a battery lifespan and it's not what you expect!

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 plugged-in pioneers in the driving seat.

Podcast preview

Kate Tyrell:

“I was trembling – physically trembling in my car, just hoping that I was going to make it to the charge point.”

“I jumped onto Twitter… I was calling them out – tagging them in, asking them what they were going to do about this – it was completely disgusting, this cannot happen to other women.”

“We could build something that could influence change here”

“I regularly run mine [EV] into the red – is that naughty?”

“I definitely don’t want to put women off from going electric just because of my isolated experience that created ChargeSafe”

“Prevention is better than the cure – right?”

“I am a woman. I am terrified of charging my car in the dark.”

“If you’re a woman – behave as a man would.”

Antonia Stephenson:

“Recycling is great, we currently have about 95% of what’s in a battery can be recovered through the recycling process, but that needs to be the end point.”

“As a consumer it's so much cheaper to repair then to replace – and it's so much more environmentally friendly”

“It’s not a sexy topic [EV batteries] but consumers need the truth”

“Consumers have an appetite to pretend to be experts about these things [EV batteries] … they need to understand the facts and we need to educate them”

“You can’t compare the battery to the engine”

“Battery prices are coming down, and they will come down as we get to that point where range and charge speeds are being addressed”

“[on tech advancement] When you think about your Nokia phone compared to your current technology – big change”

“You don’t have to have degrees in engineering to work in batteries – there are so many jobs out there in this space”

“Disappointingly, we’ve been doing lots of recruiting in the UK recently and the proportion of female vs male applicants has been pretty poor. So, it's definitely an area where we would love to see more females joining the team.”

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 ANTONIA STEPHENSON

Antonia is Director of Operations & Finance for EV Battery Solutions, part of Cox Automotive. Antonia has worked at Cox for 13 years, the first 10 as a Finance Director, before moving into operational roles. Antonia is 45 and lives in Leeds. With no kids or pets Antonia is free to spend much of her time on the road, travelling for work and as much as possible for pleasure.

ABOUT KATE TYRELL

Kate Tyrrell is CEO of ChargeSafe, a business born from her personal experience. Before that, Kate worked as the event & Partnerships manager for My Energi and is a self-confessed serial networker. Kate is a 35 year old dog mum, married for 2 years to James, who she co-founded ChargeSafe with. Kate describes herself as a hopeless optimist and always has a stash of crystals in her bra.

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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