Episode 167: Liz Allan and Laura Wilkes - Paua-ing Real Change in EV Charging

Episode 167: Liz Allan and Laura Wilkes - Paua-ing Real Change in EV Charging

Liz Allan speaks to Laura Wilkes, Customer Support and Operations Manager at Paua, to explore how one of the UK's most dynamic eMobility service providers is reimagining what “powering up" really means.

At the heart of Paua is a spirit of constant innovation, turning complex charging challenges into seamless, driver-friendly solutions. From Paua Access, their roaming network connecting over 69,000 chargers across the UK, to Paua Reimburse, which fairly repays fleet drivers for home charging, and Paua Share, enabling councils and depots to collaborate through shared charging infrastructure, Paua is redefining the EV experience at every level.

Laura reveals how these innovations were born from real-world problems: fleets needing fairer reimbursement, councils needing shared access, and drivers needing simplicity. She also talks about Paua's newest frontier, integrating salary sacrifice charging bundles to make public charging more accessible and affordable for employees.

Laura shares stories about helping fleet managers embrace EVs, the psychology behind charging habits, and her own journey to buying her first electric car, the MG4. 

Laura Wilkes Bio:
Laura Wilkes is the Customer Support and Operations Manager at Paua, where she helps fleets and businesses make the shift to electric with confidence and clarity. With a background in customer experience and operations, Laura brings a deep understanding of both people and process, ensuring every innovation at Paua delivers real-world value.

Known for her enthusiasm, empathy, and problem-solving mindset, Laura plays a key role in turning Paua’s ideas into practical tools that simplify EV charging for drivers nationwide. Her journey from marketing into sustainability reflects her passion for meaningful change and her belief that small actions and big ideas can transform how we move and power our world.

Quote of the episode:
“Go and test drive one. Just get behind the wheel and see if you like how it drives; that’s the starting point. Once you do, you’ll realise there’s really no difference… except it’s better.” Laura Wilkes, Paua

Laura Wilkes Links
Website: https://www.paua.com
Laura LinkedIn: https://www.li

Transcript

Liz Allan [00:00:02]:
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Electric Evolution. Now then, today, I have just the most wonderful person. She's going to say that she's not wonderful, but I don't actually care because I'm saying it. I have Laura Wilkes, one of the three musketeers from Paua.

Laura Wilkes [00:00:19]:
Hiya. Nice to be here. Thank you for. Thank you for inviting me.

Liz Allan [00:00:23]:
And we've just been chatting for kind of ages anyway, before we started recording. And usually everybody recognises when I've been talking to somebody for a while before, you know, beforehand, because we get on well, don't we? Even though we haven't seen each other for like a dog's age, we were.

Laura Wilkes [00:00:38]:
Trying to figure out. It's been over a year, I think, since we've actually seen each other. We talk quite often.

Liz Allan [00:00:43]:
We do.

Laura Wilkes [00:00:43]:
But I think, yeah, we've talked for nearly an hour and a half before we started this recording. So hopefully we can pretend that's all happened. I know.

Liz Allan [00:00:51]:
And I even have my shopping delivered because I didn't even realise we were going to be that long. So that's really bad, isn't it? But hey, of course, if we. We gotta laugh. So I always start off this way because I think it's really important. This is about you and learning about you and finding out about all the wonderful things that you've done before. Before your job now. And so, at the moment, you are the Customer Support and operations manager at Paua. What did you do beforehand?

Laura Wilkes [00:01:21]:
Before Power? So that's my government title for Power. So the operations manager runs with it. So before that. So I. My first. I want to say adult job out of university type thing, I worked for a marketing company called Hemingways, so Hemingway's Marketing. I was there as a Christmas temp in customer service. but then stayed there.

Laura Wilkes [00:01:45]:
I think it was nearly five years that I was with them. So they have two sides of the company. So I was predominantly with Cadbury. So Cadbury's e-commerce. If you ever bought Cadbury's online at that gifting shop, that was all through them. And I became their customer service team leader, with about 30 on the team. So it was amazing fun. And that was through covert as well.

Laura Wilkes [00:02:07]:
So it was a really interesting time to be at that company. I left there. So I built up their CRM system as well. So I got. That's when I started to kind of understand that I liked to change things.

Liz Allan [00:02:22]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:02:22]:
And to really start pushing the oh, we could do this better mentality. What can I do to change? And from there, I got a job with a company called the Phoenix Works. So that's how I started to get into renewables. Wasn't something renewable. Sustainability was never my end goal. I never thought I'd go into this type of industry, and I suppose being from the Oxdales, I never really even thought it was a thing. Sustainability up north, love.

Liz Allan [00:02:51]:
Is it really up north?

Laura Wilkes [00:02:53]:
Not a thing. Not in the Dales. It is diesel cars through and through tractors. So I don't think there's even that many solar panels up there. So for me it's. It was never something I thought I'd go into, but I got in contact with a company called the Phoenix Works, they're based in Leeds. And I became. I can't remember what I was.

Laura Wilkes [00:03:15]:
It was like customer experience, and it was predominantly with their home chargers. So it was looking at. Installing home chargers. So we were looking at all of the images of meters and where customers want to put chargers in, trying to work out, working with the engineers and the electricians that were going out to sites to make sure that the sites all worked. The day when the engineer could get there. So there was scheduling involved, and that was really interesting for me. So they then changed their name from the Phoenix Works. They got taken over by Liberty Global and became egg.

Laura Wilkes [00:03:50]:
So a lot of people do know of egg. And that's also where I met Pam. I know most people know Pam, my mate, my absolute partner in crime now. So Pam was in sales, and I was on the customer service operations side. And so, yes, so. So that was how I started knowing that there was even an industry related to sustainability. And that's how I started going. That's.

Laura Wilkes [00:04:16]:
I like this, like, oh, electric cars aren't for me though. They're definitely not for me. I'm from the Dales. That's not a thing. Therefore, you know, electric cars are solely for the. The rich Londonites type. That's. That was wholeheartedly.

Laura Wilkes [00:04:31]:
Still, my mentality going into that job was this isn't. This isn't a thing. This. This is. It's just gonna die out. It's fine. It's a fad, trust me. I've eaten my words through and through.

Liz Allan [00:04:44]:
And from there and everything. Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:04:47]:
Oh, everything. And so, yeah, I really enjoyed my time there and started looking elsewhere and came across Paua on LinkedIn who were hiring for. I think it was the customer support and operations exec at the time. I applied through LinkedIn and I got. I don't think Neil would mind me talking about this, but I got an email from Pedro to sign up for my interview. And I think it was at something like 2 o'clock in the morning, and I got this email, and I was like, oh, this isn't real like this. This is a. This is a scam company.

Laura Wilkes [00:05:19]:
100%. This is not anything like this, this won't come of anything. Again, I've learned very quickly I can eat my words.

Liz Allan [00:05:28]:
Fair enough.

Laura Wilkes [00:05:29]:
And so I, yeah, went for the interview with Pedro and loved it. I loved hearing what Power were about. And I'd already started with the sustainability, liking the tech, had an interview with Andre, CTO and with Neil, so separate interviews with them too. And genuinely fell in love with the company, I think. I can't remember how many hours me and Niall were speaking for, but I loved it. And to see the passion that were in people to go, I want that. Like, this is completely different. This isn't something I've ever worked in before.

Laura Wilkes [00:06:08]:
This is so new, and there's so much I can change. That was my big thing was this. This company is starting up. They are still so small. I can make a genuine difference. So, yeah, that's. I started empowering nearly three years ago, I think about the 1st of December. So it's been coming up to three years at Paua.

Liz Allan [00:06:30]:
So there's going to be people who know about Power because they've probably heard the podcast with Neil and had Pam on as well. And it seemed ridiculous that I didn't have you on before now. But, you know, you're on now, but do you want to just give a little bit of a summary for those that don't know what Power does? Just give a little bit of a summary about. About what they do.

Laura Wilkes [00:06:53]:
Definitely. So what do we do? What Paua do? So Paua is an MSP roaming partner. So we have. That's a very good question. And I can't actually remember the full acronym. That's terrible, isn't it? I'm so used to just saying an acronym. That's awful.

Laura Wilkes [00:07:10]:
Oh, that's terrible. I will. It's like an e-Mobility service provider.

Liz Allan [00:07:16]:
Right?

Laura Wilkes [00:07:16]:
That's what I'm gonna go.

Liz Allan [00:07:17]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:07:18]:
It's close. Yeah, that's so. I'm so used to just saying that, too. I know.

Liz Allan [00:07:23]:
Don't you worry. Don't you worry. It's only because I was kind of thinking, oh, people might not know what that is. You know, you keep me in check.

Laura Wilkes [00:07:29]:
Wooden spoon on. Wrapped on the knuckles.

Liz Allan [00:07:32]:
No, you're totally right. I've just. I've just literally Googled it, while we're talking. It is an e-mobility service provider. So you are on the money.

Laura Wilkes [00:07:41]:
Come on. On the money. I should have just gone straight with it. Yeah. So we are a roaming provider. So we have over 69,000 connectors in the UK, and we have the Paua Card and the Power app. So it's for businesses and fleets that are transitioning to electric that want charging to be simple. So we started with Power Access, which is the public network.

Laura Wilkes [00:08:01]:
So Power Card tap on a charger, away you go for the chart for the driver. They can start charging on the app as well. So they're able to do routing through the app. They're able to filter to find the chargers that they want, slower chargers if they're going to stay there for a few hours, the rapid chargers on route that they're going to need. It was all there in the app. From there, we've built Paua Reimbursement, which is home reimbursement at a fair price, so we fairly reimburse drivers. So that was brought about by Royal Mail. So they came to us, saying, There is nothing on the market that works for us.

Laura Wilkes [00:08:36]:
We went and we like a challenge, honestly, give us a challenge, give us something to like get our teeth into. We'll go with it. So that's what we did. So we started to build a home reimbursement.

Liz Allan [00:08:48]:
So, will you explain a little bit about the kind of. The synchronicity, you know, kind of like that? Well, the idiosyncrasies of. Yeah, of somebody. So we're talking about somebody who's got. Who's working for Oil Mail, for example, and they've got a home charger.

Laura Wilkes [00:09:03]:
Yeah, Home charger. So. And they can do personal and business miles. So you'll find that some fleets, the tax side of that is so complicated, and the admin needs to work out other public charging, home charging, all of that, and to be fairly reimbursed. The AER rate isn't good for any drivers that do any type of public charging. As soon as you do public charging, the AER rate is. It's no use to a driver. So we were finding out drivers were losing out thousands of pounds a year because fleets were staying, businesses were just doing the AER rate, and you can't victimise a driver that's trying to be good, trying to be sustainable with an electric car.

Laura Wilkes [00:09:49]:
So we really did our research. So anyone who knows power knows that we will if we if we're putting our teeth into something. We want to research everything, and we found so many flaws with let's get charging data, let's get home car data. There were still so many flaws that were coming out of this because a home charge great if it's the one vehicle, but a lot of houses. Now, they're probably going to get two EVs on that drive, and they're all going to use that one charger. So, how are you as a business going to make sure that you are fairly reimbursing that employee for only the business miles that they've done in their car? Not the husband's or the wife's car, the partners' or the girlfriend's, the boyfriend's or your neighbour or a friend that is coming to visit. So if you've got a friend that's coming to visit who's got an electric car, it's probably like offering them a cup of tea. Like, do you want to plug into the charger? Like, there's probably something people are going to have to start doing.

Laura Wilkes [00:10:49]:
And it was trying to make sure that, especially for Royal Mail, they have to be auditable to the exact penny. And so that's why we built Paua Reimburse. And from there we've then gone into what we call now is Power share, which is really exciting. Which came about because of the Greenfleet, EV rally. And it was the 80s. No, I think it was the Capital Challenge. So, not last year, probably two years ago.

Liz Allan [00:11:20]:
Two years ago.

Laura Wilkes [00:11:21]:
Okay. Two years ago. And it was DAF that was driving their truck about, and they were going to bus depots and charging at bus depots. And it was Niall who just went, there's something here, there has to be. Like the DAF can't be the EV rally, and DAF can't just be that one case study. But like, electric trucks are going to be a thing. Like we should be able to be that payment provider between sharing depots. And that's how it started.

Laura Wilkes [00:11:50]:
That's absolute. That the EV rally came about with this whole product that we now have. So we got Innovate UK money and the project with Innovate UK to start, and it was called Paua Pins. So that was with Suffolk County Council, Oxfordshire County Council as well, looking at how we can share depots and certain fleets that probably can't charge on the public network. So blue lights, for example, probably can't be seen on public charges. No, they need to be somewhere safe as well when they're charging. So we can get depots that are council depots, you know, fire brigades sharing with ambulance services. Police sharing with the ambulance and vice versa.

Laura Wilkes [00:12:33]:
All of those that can share between themselves, but we can make sure that they're all earning the money and the revenue from it as well. So we started with PowerShare, which is now going really well. We've got some incredible networks on there. Like, First Bus is on there as well now. So we've got fleets that can go to the First Bus sites. So that's all running. And very recently, we looked at salary sacrifice for cars. So obviously, salary sacrifice cars is a done thing.

Laura Wilkes [00:13:03]:
It's what a lot of people do because it's a great way of getting an electric car at a cheaper rate. And again, we went, can we, can we, can people save on public charging? Public charging is expensive. Can they save money on salary-sacrificing public charging? And the answer was yes. Yeah, that, that could be done. It's complicated again, but let's get our teeth into it. Let's, let's have another challenge. We like our challenges. We like to innovate.

Laura Wilkes [00:13:32]:
We have to have something going on. And so that's exactly what we did. And we realised, yeah, we can do that. So we have partnered with some incredible companies out there to offer salary sacrifice public charging as a bundle as part of the car price. So in. It's amazing. So it's only, it's only in its early stages, and we've got some great companies that we're working with on that that have launched the salary sacrifice proposition as well. So we are all over the place now.

Laura Wilkes [00:14:01]:
We've got like the holy trinity of charging. So we've got the public, we've got home, we've got Depot. It's kind of the Holy Trinity. And now with salary sacrifice just kind of being there over the top, so.

Liz Allan [00:14:11]:
 You're basically speaking to so many different companies at Paua. And you, I can imagine, are kind of on a daily basis speaking to a variety of different, different organizations about what power do and about, you know, kind of how you can help them. What, what's, what's, what's been the kind of the number one thing for you that's, that stands out that, you know, kind of, because you're check. You're kind of adding all of these, these different things in, you know, like you said about sustainability, wasn't a thing.

Laura Wilkes [00:14:47]:
Was.

Liz Allan [00:14:47]:
Was a kind of innovation in your, you know, in your backyard, as it were. Was that a thing or is it. Has it kind of grown, and you've gone, oh, my God, look at all of these things that we can do.

Laura Wilkes [00:14:59]:
I think it's that. It's. I. I'm always one. I've always been one of these people who like to know how something works. I'm that child who would, you know, disassemble something to figure out how it worked. You know, get the toy and take it apart to go, oh, that's how it works. Put it back together, right? Can I make it better? What can I do to change it? So I've always been that type of person who likes to change, that likes to.

Laura Wilkes [00:15:21]:
I. Back then again, I didn't really know it was innovative. It wasn't really a thing that I knew about. And looking back, I'm like, I can see exactly why power was the perfect place for me to be because I can genuinely grow and genuinely learn, but actually making a difference and making a change. And I mean, I genuinely like. So I speak to loads of different fleets, all of our customers and people that are coming on board, but we also talk to the CPOs, we talk to logistics.

Laura Wilkes [00:15:53]:
We talk to so many different people. We've got partners like Webfleet, so the telematics side. So we're partners with them as well. So when they're selling telematics, we can help make that bundle even better by having a power card with it. But for me, it's seeing the journey of a fleet. I always tell the story of one fleet manager who came to us, and the first electric vehicle was turning up to their fleet that week, and they rang me and said, Laura, we're signing up to power, like. And they had just signed up, and they knew, as a fleet manager, absolutely nothing about EVs. Same as me.

Laura Wilkes [00:16:36]:
I'd only been in Paua for about two months at that point, and they knew nothing about EVs. They didn't know that there was a difference between the connector types. So trying to figure out, because it was a van that was coming, if it was a Nissan van, because then Chademo becomes a. A problem or a solution that's needed there.

Liz Allan [00:16:54]:
Yeah, yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:16:55]:
Or if they have CCS charging, if it's type two, they knew, like, that fleet manager knew absolutely nothing. And from. From that, we have grown that fleet. And I have been by that fleet manager's side the whole way through it, to, you know, getting questions from drivers going, oh, it's the car's charge. The vehicle is charging at this time. Can I leave the charger? Okay, can I. Can I leave the vehicle to charge and go into the service station? It's like, yeah, of course, you can not realise as we do that all the time, that this is someone brand new that didn't know they were able to do that.

Liz Allan [00:17:31]:
Yeah, they thought it was like a petrol pump. Where do you have to go for petrol? Yeah, yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:17:37]:
And so for me, that fleet has now grown to. They've got just under 200 vehicles now, electric vehicles, and that fleet manager is extremely knowledgeable now on EVs. But it's. For me, it's seeing that growth and the want. And they want to change to make a difference, and I, I absolutely love it.

Liz Allan [00:17:58]:
And we were talking before we started recording, just thinking about what you've just said, then. You really like the psychology behind some of this, don't you? You know, kind of like the psychology of the fleets themselves. We would talk about kind of creatures, how people can be creatures of habit with charging.

Laura Wilkes [00:18:18]:
Definitely. And it's. It's so interesting for me because there is obviously the B2C market where they are probably driven a lot more by price. So they are driven, obviously, and convenience, but by price as well. And you'll find that BTC drivers will shop around to see where's the better one. They will look at getting, you know, a subscription to a certain ChargePoint network, you know, like Ionity offer the subscription that they have because they've got them in their back door, or they can get rid, you know, they know where that network is and they're good with that.

Liz Allan [00:18:52]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:18:54]:
To actually fleets where the most expensive part of a fleet is their time. So fleets don't always care about the wrong words, but their priority is not cost; their priority is time and reliability. If they know that the charger is going to work, they're going to go to that charger.

Liz Allan [00:19:13]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:19:14]:
So it's, for us, it's working with those fleet managers and going great. They've started with electric that they. They've got their habits now, which, you know, let's see what we can change. So we've recently brought out a product where we can look at their charging sessions and go, Is there cheaper variants around there that we can go to? Yes, there is. Great. Let's speak to those drivers, speak to those fleet managers and see if, actually, we can change a habit and get that driver to go to a different charge point that is exactly the same reliability, the equivalent type of charger, but cheaper for them and overall to see how much a fleet can actually save money. So it's not just getting the electric cars on the road, it's not just getting the vehicles, the vans, the trucks, everything onto the road. It's mentality, it's changing what people think and making sure that people don't.

Laura Wilkes [00:20:14]:
Don't get into the bad habits of going, oh, I just go to this one. Well, why do you go to that charger? Well, it's the only one I know about. It just, it just does it like. No, you can change, you can, you can save money, you can change, you can go to this charger. I always say, like, when I'm travelling, I look for certain charges because my priorities are usually food. I'm food-oriented. I'm driving with Pam. Meet both me and Pam, we want a meal, we want food.

Laura Wilkes [00:20:44]:
We don't want to be sat like in a service station that is not us. So we always look for Osprey chargers because they've got the partnership with pubs.

Liz Allan [00:20:53]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:20:53]:
So we will always go for a pub meal and plug the car in on a slower, you know, the 50 kilowatt chargers. Because we know that when we've come out, let's say an hour, nearly two hours later, knowing us, sometimes when we sit talking and eating, the car's going to be full like that. You. You've got to find the priorities of charging.

Liz Allan [00:21:12]:
Yeah, I mean, I suppose it's a bit like, you know, it's funny, I was. You just got me thinking then about when I used to fill, you know, when I had a petrol car and I used to fill it up. Did I fill it up at a service station? No, I didn't because it was usually more expensive at a service station. So I'd find a petrol station that was, you know, not at a service station. So we actually paid. Paid a lower rate. And, and in a way, I suppose, and I've. I've talked about this before on the podcast.

Liz Allan [00:21:42]:
It's kind of getting people to think differently, but you know, do. Of course, I see people filling their cars up at petrol stations, at service stations. But some, you know, and some are probably not. They don't give two monkeys sometimes. But a lot of people wouldn't because of that price factor. But it's like now we don't tend to go to a service station for the reason that you say, yes, I used to do that, but actually doesn't mean I have to do it now. So we'll go to a Marsden's pub because we know it's got an Osprey at it. We'll go to Sainsbury's because we know we can pop in, you know, pop into it, especially if we're going down to ex.

Liz Allan [00:22:20]:
To where my son is at uni, you know, and we can actually pop it on the charger there. We can go in and get a little bit of shopping, use the conveniences, that kind of thing, you know, and do whatever. Do whatever we need to do.

Laura Wilkes [00:22:31]:
Exactly.

Liz Allan [00:22:32]:
Before we, before we kind of move on. So. And garden centres, you know, I mean, I know this sounds really weird, but kind of like, actually, I'm quite looking. I quite like looking at a garden centre.

Laura Wilkes [00:22:43]:
I was at one two weeks ago. Absolutely love it. And because it had, it had an Osprey Chargers to it. And I was meeting a friend, and we said we wanted to go look around a garden centre. And I was like, Oh, I know a great one. And we went round to it, and I could plug the car in while we went around the garden centre. Absolutely love a garden centre.

Liz Allan [00:23:00]:
There's just so much.

Laura Wilkes [00:23:01]:
But it is, it is so much about mentality, change, and it's. I think we've changed so much in what we all talk about. You know, we used to always, when I, especially when I first started, the power was range anxiety and how that was such a big thing. And it still is for people who are just starting out. Yeah. But now that we're so much more down the line, years down the line, it's going, you know, let's change your mentality of this. It's annoying, the quote from Sam Clarke is not, you don't charge when, you know, you don't stop to charge. You charge when you stop.

Laura Wilkes [00:23:36]:
And it's. It's so true is you shouldn't, you know, go out of your way to go, oh, I. I need to charge. And that's it. It's just put it into your life. It's. It's not a big problem. It's not a crazy change, but it's a different mentality where it is.

Laura Wilkes [00:23:55]:
It's a complete unknown. And I think people don't.

Liz Allan [00:23:58]:
Don't like that, do they? As in just the, oh my gosh, change, change.

Laura Wilkes [00:24:02]:
People don't like change.

Liz Allan [00:24:03]:
I've got to change. I've got to do something different. Yeah. And so, so hang on a minute. So what do I need to do? Well, you just need to plan a little bit, you know, or, you know, some people don't plan, but actually I usually plan, or my husband and I usually plan, because of the fact that we've got. Our car's got a lower range, but it's sort of, we know that we want to stop partway because we know it's good for us to actually stop and have a break. You know, wherever we're going, if we're doing a 145-mile journey, we're going to stop around. You know, sometimes we get all the.

Liz Allan [00:24:39]:
Because that's how long it takes, how many miles it is from here to Exeter. Sometimes we'll do it and we'll do it in one, but sometimes we'll stop on route. So, you know, it kind of, it kind of depends. It depends whether it's cold weather and we've got a bit less range because the car, you know, isn't, isn't quite as efficient in the cold. But you just end up being flexible, you know, and kind of going, right, okay, this time I just need to do that. But to start off with, it's, it's kind of oh my God, isn't it? You know, people just, it's different. But once you get into that routine and that rhythm, it's like, oh, well.

Laura Wilkes [00:25:14]:
It's fine, it's fine, it's, it's nothing to worry about. I mean, I was just telling you that my dad has driven his first-ever electric vehicle. He is a truck driver. Yorkshire truck driver, ex-firefighter, retired firefighter. So, you know, it's very, I'm still going to say anti-EV because it's a change. He didn't know anything about them. He's been in my car. He was in the Zoe that I had at the time, once when we went around a field because we had the fire engines that we have.

Laura Wilkes [00:25:46]:
And so yeah, he's very, very little to do with EVs. And he rang me and said, I've driven my first EV. It was an electric van. He dropped the truck off for servicing and got given an electric van as the courtesy car, and he had to drive it back to where they work. He did not know it was electric. He didn't know anything about regen breaking. He didn't understand anything. So I got this phone call afterwards, going, this, this, the, the, when you take your foot off the accelerator, it slows down.

Laura Wilkes [00:26:23]:
I'm like, well, that's what a car does anyway. But you went, no, no, it slows to a stop. It's brilliant. I really like it. And I'm like, that's regen braking. That's putting energy back into the battery. That's for your range. And he didn't know that, and he loved it.

Laura Wilkes [00:26:38]:
He thought it was this fantastic invention. He's like I didn't have to use the brakes.  I went. He nearly got all the way back to where the workplace was without ever using his brake because he regen. He was using the accelerator to regen brake. But the part that got me all was that he said it had a 150-mile range. This car is a van. When he picked it up he had to go.

Laura Wilkes [00:27:02]:
I think it was about 20 miles. I'm just, just ballparking it.

Liz Allan [00:27:06]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:27:07]:
And he was terrified it wouldn't make it.

Liz Allan [00:27:10]:
Oh bless him.

Laura Wilkes [00:27:11]:
Absolutely terrified. That was his worst. Absolutely terrified that this 150-mile range wouldn't be able to do 20 miles.

Liz Allan [00:27:17]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:27:18]:
Because he's been told by social media, Facebook, the absolute experts, that vehicles, electric vehicles, don't have any range to them, and it'll suddenly all disappear. Yeah. And he fully believed that until he got back and realised he'd regen braked and actually still pretty much had most of the range that he started with because of the way that the roads were. And then he said it accelerates the instant acceleration of a van. He was like, he was like a child. He didn't realise not racing. We're not going to say that. But he didn't realise the instant torque.

Liz Allan [00:27:58]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:27:58]:
Of an electric vehicle. And he got hooked. He's like, I really like it. He, he's completely changed his way. From I'm not 100% anti-EV, but he, he's starting to understand why people are changing to EVs, which I think is completely the first fight. And it was so nice to hear this from someone who is such an anti-EV person. Yeah. And I mean, I've pretty much had the same with my brother as well. Very much an anti-EV person.

Laura Wilkes [00:28:29]:
And we've had situations where I've had an EV at the time and we've had to go somewhere and I've gone, let's go in, let's go in the EV. Let's, let's. I want to show you it. Oh no, you don't want that. I want to go in my Range Rover. No, we're going in the electric car. We had to go to a hospital, and I was like, I know full well that the hospital car parking is always full. Always.

Laura Wilkes [00:28:51]:
And if you take your Range Rover, we aren't, we are not getting parked anyway.

Liz Allan [00:28:55]:
You just go around in circles for.

Laura Wilkes [00:28:57]:
Like, we're just gonna go around in circles. We're never gonna get in. Yeah. But that hospital has got a bank of chargers by it that are hardly ever used, like in the hospital car park. And these charges are hardly ever used. And I was like, let's go to them, like, trust me. And so we drove in, parked up again as we said, the car park was absolutely rammed, like. And he's there going, oh, see, we shouldn't have brought the EV either.

Laura Wilkes [00:29:22]:
We couldn't possibly be doing that. Turn the corner, bank of EVs is empty, plug the car in. Away we go. And he's going, there was a car parking space for you. I'm like, there was. Well done. We do what we need to do. We come out, unplug the car and away we go.

Laura Wilkes [00:29:39]:
And he didn't realise it because obviously it's only a slow. It was a 7-kilowatt charger. We weren't there so long, but it covered the drive from the house to the hospital and back again. I said, so we're net zero, like, it's brilliant. And he went, I quite like that. There's. There's a place for EVs, isn't there? I'm like, there is a place for EVs. And it's getting through to people that they're not this scary, unknown quantity anymore.

Laura Wilkes [00:30:05]:
Like they, they're there and you can drive them and they're fun to drive. So yeah, it, it's been a bit of a whirlwind recently.

Liz Allan [00:30:14]:
And you don't have to go, you, you can still go to a petrol station because some of them, some of the petrol station, you know, some of the companies have got ev, EV charging there, but actually you don't have to because you'll find them at a hospital, you find them at a gym, you'll find them at a supermarket and you can just. And you can plug in. Whereas I don't know what. And, I don't know whether you've been. For those of you watching and listening, if you've not seen this, then check it out. Have you seen the video from Zaptech recently where they called, they kind of did a bit of a skit video on Gastec, and there was this skit about putting in your home petrol pump. Do you know what I mean? And it was kind of a guy with the petrol pump on the back of the car, you know, and I just, I just loved it because I just thought, actually this is a really good way of getting people to think a bit differently about where you can charge because you can't put a home petrol pump outside your house unless you live in a petrol station, you know, you can't. You, you're less, yes, fair enough, supermarkets, but there are so many other places that you are less likely to put them.

Liz Allan [00:31:20]:
Whereas you can park your car up, you can go and do something, you know, in a kind of, in a different, in a supermarket or a kind of, you know, next to a department store or whatever.

Laura Wilkes [00:31:32]:
I mean I, I went and got my haircut at the weekend and I knew there's a bank of connected curb chargers nearby in the car park that I would park at anyway to go get my hair cut. And I was like, right, well, I'm gonna be there for a few hours because you know, it takes a while sometimes. And I just plugged the car in because why not? I'm gonna be there for a few hours, I might as well get a bit of charge into the car because I'm gonna be there anyway. It's just changing that mentality of, of how you live your life a little bit, and it's not the crazy change everyone thinks it is, and it's not the biggest deal in the world to, to me anyway.

Liz Allan [00:32:10]:
And, and even when we're looking at kind of doing a bit of checking out in advance, you know, like I say, cuz I'm a bit in retentive and you know I like to actually be able to plan where I'm, where I'm going to charge. But if I kind of say this to people say we didn't always have kind of Google Maps and you had to kind of check the route and you had, you know, so people, people I suppose we've got to a point, haven't we in some ways that people are so used to just jumping in a car, put the navigation on and just rocking out, you know, rocking up somewhere, driving and rocking up somewhere. So they see that, oh, going to a petrol station's dead easy. But actually I've recently I've seen a few queues at petrol stations and if you've got a queue and then you've got a queue to, to get it, unless you've got to pay it pump it can take 10, 15 minutes anyway it's not that much longer to even, I mean topping up a charge really, you can probably do it on a, on an ultra rapid charger, can't you? To top up and get a little bit of miles while you just go to the loo or go and get a chocolate bar or am I, I'm just thinking of me there.

Laura Wilkes [00:33:14]:
No, that's exactly, that's that's what I do as well. Mine's normally to go grab a coffee. Let's be honest, it's normally coffee and in the bathroom. But that's exactly what I do.  I know there's a charger near me, it's a Shell Recharge. And I know full well I can plug it in, I can run to the bathroom, grab a coffee if I really want to grab a coffee while I'm there and be back to the car in 10 minutes. It's got the charge that I need it to. I unplug, and I go like, it is not any time out of my day that I wouldn't be normally doing that sort of thing anyway.

Laura Wilkes [00:33:47]:
So for me, yeah, it's. It's not the change that everyone thinks it's going to be, and it's just, it's the unfamiliar for people that's the biggest thing. It is a change. But once you've made it, you'll realise, actually, it's not as big and scary as you once thought it was.

Liz Allan [00:34:05]:
And I'm going to talk about, I'm going to get you to talk about, actually, something that's just been. You've just got your own, your first personal EV, haven't you? You've been driving EVs with power for some time. But this is, this is really important because this is you, this is you buying this, buying this ev. And we talked as well about kind of your, your thoughts on having a home charger because of where you're, where you're living and your kind of personal circumstances, which I, I thought, I think is really worth kind of talking about, you know, during this.

Laura Wilkes [00:34:41]:
Yeah, definitely. Go for it. So, yeah, I am a week into having my first full. My own ev. I've always been, I know, very excited. It took a very long time, and anyone who knows me has probably listened to me rant about all the different cars on the market, their pros, and their cons. And I think being in the industry is great, but it also has a con to that. We know the types of cars, we know their faults, we know what they're good for, we know what they're not good for.

Laura Wilkes [00:35:12]:
We know everything. And I think actually too much information has probably caused my whole situation in the first place because I was like, I want to go to an EV. I had a diesel at the time. I very rarely drove it anyway. And I, when I started at power, I'd put my hand on my heart. Never driven an EV before. So Neil very wisely said, you can't be in Power and not have driven an ev. So I got given the keys to the Jaguar I pace.

Laura Wilkes [00:35:42]:
So that was my first-ever EV that I drove. I think it set the bar a little bit too high. Absolutely loved that. It's a good car, though. The torque from it, the speed, the acceleration. Absolutely loved it.

Liz Allan [00:35:56]:
Oh yeah, I've just remembered about me and you and our Tesla. Tesla.

Laura Wilkes [00:36:00]:
Yes, Yes. I like to go a little bit fast.

Liz Allan [00:36:03]:
We should, we should talk about that later as well, shouldn't we? Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:36:08]:
Yes. Okay. So I like to have fun when I drive. I'm not stupid, but I just like to. I just like to have fun. And so for me, having to choose a car was massive, especially an EV because I knew what type of battery I thought I wanted, and I knew what car I thought I wanted. So, so I was like, I want a big car. I want like the Mercedes EQAs.

Laura Wilkes [00:36:30]:
I want the, the Kia EV3s. That's the car I want. I want the big sitting-up car. That's what I want. But I also don't want a boring family car. I don't have children.  I want to have a bit of fun still with the car that I've got for at least a few more years if I can. So I didn't want to go down the Skoda Enyaq route because they are more of the estate cars.

Laura Wilkes [00:36:53]:
That's not what I wanted. But they had the boots, so I have dogs. I wanted to be able to fit a dog in a car somewhere somehow. And so I went through everything, and I started realising, I started tracking how many miles I used to do because I work from home. But yes, I travel sometimes for events with power. So I needed to have a car with a decent range, but nothing crazy, but that turned out not to be what I needed. So I had the Renner Zoe for a little bit. The power Renner Zoe, that definitely wasn't what I wanted.

Laura Wilkes [00:37:29]:
The car was amazing. It was brilliant, but it just didn't have the space that I needed. Didn't have the battery that I needed. So we spoke with the team at Voltric, who we had the Zoe on subscription with anyway, and they've recently come out with their salary sacrifice vehicles, which are on salary sacrifice. And I was like, that's what I want to do. Told Neil, that's what I want to do. That's the route I think we should go down. And so in true power style, we did so much research into it again with all of the different cars, and in the end, crazily enough, I went for the MG4 long range in red because red's a really nice colour for a car.

Liz Allan [00:38:12]:
There is. You can get to pink. I said that.

Laura Wilkes [00:38:14]:
And it's the nearest I can get to pink, but I hope to get pink put on it somehow. I don't know if it'll look that great on it. I need to have a little bit of a play because it was going to be. It might have been the blue. So I went. I said to vote it red or blue. I really want red. But if it has to be blue, it has to be blue.

Laura Wilkes [00:38:30]:
And that probably would have gone better with pink. And I absolutely love the car. It's got the acceleration, it's got the fun that I wanted, and it's still got the space. So the dogs. Yes. Probably a little bit cramped in the boot, but can sit on the back seat, so I could put a seat cover down across the back fully and the dog's in there. So I've only had to charge it a few times because I really don't travel that far. But when I have done, it has been rapid and it's been absolutely brilliant and I've loved it.

Laura Wilkes [00:39:02]:
But, yeah, I started looking at home charges as well, like you do when you're doing all your research.

Liz Allan [00:39:07]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:39:07]:
And where I live. So I showed you on Google Maps where I lived and the setup. So, unfortunately, although I have a driveway and I have a garage, it's actually connected to someone else's garage and someone else's house. And then it's my house. So I have a. It's my house, somebody else's house, their garage and then my garage. So I don't have direct access to the garage to put a charger in. I've spoken to electricians, I've got quotes, so I know that I can do it.

Laura Wilkes [00:39:37]:
But I rent this property, and if I owned it, it would probably be a little bit different.

Liz Allan [00:39:43]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:39:44]:
But I decided in the end not to go down the home charger route because for me, putting that money in. Yes, my landlord might have done half with me, maybe if I'd asked really, really nicely. But they had no need to actually want to do that. And that's the route I started looking at, which was, I'm gonna have to dig up my neighbour's garden to put the cable in the tarmac that's there. And if. Yeah, if I'd bought it, I probably would have gone down that route and talked to my neighbour, with whom I have an amazing relationship. But I decided that because I'm renting and because I don't have proper access for a home charger, that the money that I'd spend on a home charger, I may as well just spend that on cheaper public charging, be really savvy and be really cost sensitive of where I'm charging. And like I said, look at subscriptions for certain networks that are near me and be.

Laura Wilkes [00:40:42]:
Be cost sensitive to that. And actually, that's working really well for me, and that's what I've been doing. So, yeah, it's a jump, but I've loved it.

Liz Allan [00:40:53]:
And, and the biggest, the biggest thing for you.

Laura Wilkes [00:40:56]:
Yeah.

Liz Allan [00:40:56]:
Is. Is it yours? It's your first EV. You've. We talked about this anyway, didn't we? The amount of research that you did for this wasn't.

Laura Wilkes [00:41:07]:
You know, I think I've test-driven nearly every EV on the market. It's so bad. I could tell you everything about any of the EVs on the market now because I, I genuinely wanted a bigger car. But in the end, I've realised I don't actually need a bigger car. That's not. I just need, I just wanted a bigger car. It wasn't a need. And looking at the price points of them and the versions that I could get, and if I wanted to go on salary sacrifice, or if I wanted to go for leasing or if I wanted to buy a car outright.

Laura Wilkes [00:41:39]:
So I looked at every option you could ever think of, and that's what I came up with. And I genuinely nearly went with three Ford Puma. So the leasing of the Ford Puma was possible because there were some amazing deals on them.

Liz Allan [00:41:51]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:41:52]:
And I tested it and loved it. Thought the car was fantastic. The outside of the car, the boot, everything was exactly what I wanted. And then I test drove it, and I hated it.

Liz Allan [00:42:01]:
Oh, did you?

Laura Wilkes [00:42:02]:
Absolutely hated it.

Liz Allan [00:42:04]:
What was it, what was it you hate?

Laura Wilkes [00:42:06]:
Because to me it was sludgy.

Liz Allan [00:42:09]:
In what way? This. You mean the speed was sludgy?

Laura Wilkes [00:42:15]:
Yeah, it just. So we talk about instant Talk for, for EVs and it just didn't, it didn't have that spark. It didn't have the oomph to get going. It just, it was really happy just going along and, and for people that's probably great, but for me, it drove me insane because I was like, I, I want a cow with a little bit of a, an oomph to it, not a crazy Umph. But just like something there. So for me, it was just sludgy, and I think if you've driven enough EVs, you kind of know what I mean by it as well.

Liz Allan [00:42:52]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:42:53]:
But I think for the price point, it's an excellent car, especially for people who are just getting into EVs. I think it's fantastic. It just wasn't for me. And again, with so many of the other cars, I looked at so many. It's so bad. Everyone who knows me knows how much I've been looking at cars and what I wanted to go for, and I'm probably very surprised that I went with the MG in the end, but I've absolutely loved it.

Liz Allan [00:43:17]:
So, yeah, it's. It's the thing that's. That's what you wanted, that's what you've got, isn't it? And I'm. I am going to just talk very quickly about Arteza because I. I'd forgotten about this. Oh, my God. So Laura and I went to. It was a woman.

Liz Allan [00:43:32]:
Women in EV session, wasn't it? Up. I can't remember where.

Laura Wilkes [00:43:38]:
Birmingham. Tesla.

Liz Allan [00:43:40]:
Yeah. So, yeah, so the Tesla in Birmingham. And I'm sure you and I, kind of the main reason we were going was because we'd agreed to go on a joint test drive together, haven't we? And I went. I went first and I. I would say I think I'm. I'm a fairly decent driver, but I suppose I'm older than you anyway.

Laura Wilkes [00:44:04]:
And.

Liz Allan [00:44:06]:
And it was, you know, I've. I've driven Tesla since. I think it was probably the first time I'd actually driven a Tesla. So maybe that's why, kind of, I held back. And. And we talked earlier as well, haven't we, about the fact that we've both been in car accidents, and I think. I think for me that sort of, like, I'm a bit more reserved until I get to know the car, and it takes me a while, and what have you. So I was a bit.

Liz Allan [00:44:30]:
Bit quite reserved. Anyway, it was your turn. I was holding onto the seat because I was like, Oh, my God. You did not hold back, love, did you?

Laura Wilkes [00:44:42]:
No, absolutely not. If you're. If you're going to test drive a car, you have to put your foot down legally within the speed limit. You have to put. You still have to put your foot down.

Liz Allan [00:44:51]:
Down a narrow country lane, though. She was doing this.

Laura Wilkes [00:44:54]:
Okay. It wasn't the wisest idea we've ever had. I'm going to put that out there. But the car came back in one piece, and we were completely fine. I think my worst part was trying to figure out where the indicator was because it was the ones on the steering wheel, wasn't it? Yeah. So I remember trying to go around a roundabout, going, Where's the indicator?

Liz Allan [00:45:12]:
As well, turn on the wipers. I turned the wipers on a few times, didn't I? Because I was like, Oh my God. I didn't actually know where the hell the. Yeah, and I think I even turned the radio on at one point because I was too busy kind of thumbs everywhere. But that was, that was interesting. So it does make me realise the kind of, you know, kind of ev that you like. So I get the, I get the Puma versus, versus the MG now. So that's, that's quite, quite interesting.

Liz Allan [00:45:42]:
But I suppose really the question is how, you know, looking back about your, your thoughts on joining power and, and sort of feeling about sustainability and all of that kind of stuff. How much have you changed in these, in these years that you've been work, you know, working with? I mean, Neil and Pam are just, I mean, you've got a bigger team. I'm not just saying these guys are a team of three, but actually, when you see them out, it's kind of the three of you, and then there are some of the other team members that come along as well in certain events and stuff. But you are like, like I say, you're like the three Musketeers.

Laura Wilkes [00:46:23]:
You know, we have.  I'll start with the changes.  I've changed so much. I've changed my view on pretty much everything, sustainability-wise, and it's all to do with like, what, what can we change? Like, climate change is actually a real thing, and back then, it really wasn't a thing for me, like air quality, I didn't. And the nicest way, North Yorkshire, darling, you know, the Yorkshire Dales. I have a cleaner. Unless a slurry tanker comes past and it smells a bit, and it's not very nice. But other than that, like I have cleaner.

Laura Wilkes [00:46:57]:
I, I, you know, those in London, I didn't care about them because for me, not my problem. Move, move out of the cities. If that's a lot. If that's the case, and there are still so many in that same viewpoint. Yeah, but actually, if I can have fun driving a car and be helping the planet at the same time, I'm absolutely all for that because that's my way of sustainability, is I've absolutely loved it, and my viewpoint on it has changed incredibly. And the people at Power, like the Power Rangers, as Colin Boyton coined that phrase, and he should have copyrighted it and should get royalties for every time we use it.

Liz Allan [00:47:36]:
No, it's got to be you guys.

Laura Wilkes [00:47:38]:
He came up with it. 100. He came up with it. We. I'm very proud to say I'm a Power Ranger and to say I work for Paua because we have an incredible team that, you know. Yes. You see us three, you know, you see Niall, who is an incredible leader. You don't see Andre, who is just as incredible as he is, but isn't on the podcast.

Laura Wilkes [00:48:02]:
He doesn't go to the events. We don't allow him out. He is, you know, he's such a brain behind it. The tech side of it. The team that he runs of developers, their want for change, their need for change, their constant drive for innovation, their constant drive for change in things are going, okay, how does this work? Let's build it now. How can we change it? You know, if I could ever show people our. Our conversations that we all have, where it's like, here, here's, you know, here's what it currently looks like and random scribbles on things going, can we change how this looks? Change this slight little thing. You know, we've got the developers that are absolutely incredible.

Laura Wilkes [00:48:45]:
We've got a designer who works her socks off because, let's be honest, neon pink doesn't really go with that much. It's. It's one of those colours, like, we stand out. And so she absolutely has to work her socks off on that. And we've got Jeremy, who is seen at events quite often as well, who is like a project manager, and he runs Power Share Paua Pins. His absolute baby. And with him, you've got someone like Anna, who is like a network manager slash data scientist analyst. So she really goes into the nitty-gritty of the data.

Laura Wilkes [00:49:25]:
But it's the people that we have. And. And Pam, I'm just gonna say Pam. Let's be honest. Pam is Pam. She is one of a kind. She broke the mould with her. Her drive keeps me going.

Laura Wilkes [00:49:41]:
There are days when I look at her and I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna say I want to be like her, because she'd live off that for way too long.

Liz Allan [00:49:48]:
Should have just heard you now, love.

Laura Wilkes [00:49:50]:
She will. I don't want you, believe it or not, absolutely love her to pieces. And her drive to bring paua to people is what keeps me going so often. The people who are there are what makes it. And when we say like we like to innovate, we like change, that is wholeheartedly what we do. You know, I know absolutely nothing about running a fleet. Let's be honest. I don't know.

Laura Wilkes [00:50:16]:
I don't know what a day-to-day fleet manager has to do. But if I can help them with charging, if I can help them save on admin times by giving them all of their charging history, if I can help them by saving money and telling drivers hey, you could go here instead or even breaking down, you know, overstay fees and making them aware that they're getting the overstay fees, all of that, if we can just help with that, I'm good. I've made a change. I've made changes to fleets I and that drives me going.

Liz Allan [00:50:49]:
It's Nashi. And that's your legacy as well, isn't it? You know, to me, you know, kind of moving forwards, you've kind of your Lee, it's the same as I, you know, I want to do with this, the stuff that we're kind of doing with Charge-Wise, the new platform we're working with or working on developing. You know, you want to leave that legacy, don't you? And I think that's what you guys have done. But your personalities lead the way, really. And you know what? And that I've got to say about it because this is probably going to come out in two or three weeks' time from when we're recording it. But recently we had Halloween, and oh my God, your Halloween social media video. For those of you watching and listening, please check out Paua's' Halloween video because Neil didn't know about it, did he?

Laura Wilkes [00:51:42]:
No, Neil, he absolutely did not know anything. I sent a video to Pam from TikTok and just said we should do this, and the whole thing thought she'd turn around and go Why are you even thinking No, we are not doing that. Instead, she loves Halloween just as much as I do. And when we're doing this, we're absolutely doing this. So the idiots that we are. It was we who were driving down to Fleet Mobility live. So we did it that early on.

Liz Allan [00:52:12]:
Oh my God.

Laura Wilkes [00:52:13]:
Oh my God. On the. I know. On the way down and on the way back. Neil knew we were doing something, but did not know to what extent we were doing it. And it was fantastic. And being able to put your personality into a company is very rare because so many companies is. It's a very professional toe the line on my serious, yeah, very serious.

Laura Wilkes [00:52:38]:
And actually, we're not. We are very pressured when we need to be. Like, when we're talking about charging all of this, we are dead serious about the work that we do and the passion and the innovation that we have. But if we can just have a bit of fun while we're doing it, like, absolutely, that's what we're gonna do, because that's the point. And it's. It's so solely stemmed from, you know, Neil and Andre are the same. Like, they have so much passion, but there's still personality there.

Laura Wilkes [00:53:07]:
We're still people. There is. There are 12 of us in power. We love what we do, and we want to show it to people. And if that's a bit of fun by dressing up, then we're going to do that. You know, you can't be dead serious if you're wearing neon pink to every event anyway.

Liz Allan [00:53:23]:
True.

Laura Wilkes [00:53:23]:
So you kind of have to have a personality to match what you're wearing. So, yeah, it's been fantastic. And it's a testament to both Neil and Andre that they allow us to do stuff like that and to trust in us. You know, I don't have a marketing background. I don't even have a financial background, you know, or an operational background for that matter. But the point is, we want that. We want to learn, we want to bring that change about. And if they allow us that time and that space to be able to see if we're creative, to see about marketing, then they're gonna let us do it.

Laura Wilkes [00:53:57]:
And it's a lot of fun. It's crazy sometimes. And I don't think I'll ever understand marketing. I will never understand LinkedIn's algorithm.

Liz Allan [00:54:08]:
Oh, I don't think anybody will.

Laura Wilkes [00:54:10]:
No.

Liz Allan [00:54:10]:
Change it so often. You just wouldn't.

Laura Wilkes [00:54:12]:
Anyway, yeah, we put stuff out because I'm really interested in it. And my theory is if I'm interested and if I like it, then maybe one other person will be. And that's the whole point is we'll just put it out there and see what people are interested in. Because I'm really interested in, like, data and charging curves, because that to me is learning. You know, when that car starts to slow down, that's when you should really be moving off. And. But what if you stay? You know, what happens then? And does it change per vehicle? Obviously, yes, but does it change what charger, what network, what charger type? You know, is it. Are you quicker charging on, you know, like a tritium charger or charging on, you know a different type of charger, what, what works for you.

Laura Wilkes [00:54:59]:
And that whole data there is so interesting to me. So I'll put that on LinkedIn, and it probably does. Absolutely terrible. But a video of us dressed up in Halloween gear. Bring it on. And, and I mean, just, just wait for Christmas. Now we may or may not have had a few CPOs reach out to us and go, we want to be included next time. So we are absolutely going to include them.

Laura Wilkes [00:55:21]:
And yeah, bring on Christmas.

Liz Allan [00:55:24]:
I think it's, I think it's brilliant, honestly. Just like you say, being able to integrate and utilise your own personalities because otherwise it just, it just, Life can be boring, can't it? Do you know what I mean? And, you are kind of showing people that it doesn't have to be business, doesn't have to be boring either.

Laura Wilkes [00:55:47]:
No, business is not boring, and business shouldn't be corporate. We enjoy what we do, and we have passion, and if that's our personality as well, then that's our personality as well.

Liz Allan [00:56:00]:
So, so I'm going to ask you one final, you know, me and you been talking for ages today anyway, but I'm going to ask you one one final question. So you've just made this switch to EV personally as a new, you're not a new EV driver, but as an EV driver with a new EV in the way that you've done it, moving from, you know, kind of your old stinky model to a nice new streamlined, non-stinky one. What advice would you give to somebody who wants to make the switch to or even just, you know, like your dad, you know, you've been talking to your dad, and you talked to me about your brother, didn't you? And he has the way that he's thinking things differently. What one thing would you say to them to actually, you know, kind of what advice would you give them if they wanted to, wanted to make that sweet switch, and they would. It was just a glimmer, you know.

Laura Wilkes [00:57:00]:
Just a glimmer.

Liz Allan [00:57:00]:
Yeah.

Laura Wilkes [00:57:01]:
Go test drive, genuinely go to a dealership, like find the manufacturer that you like. You know, most people like the car that they've got already. So go to that manufacturer. If you've got a Ford, go to a Ford dealership or if you've got a Kia like I had, go to the Kia dealership, go to the dealership near you, go to a garage near you and just test drive, just have a look at it. That is so wholeheartedly. The first thing is just get behind the wheel and see if you like how it drives. Because that's, that's the start point. If you actually like how it drives, then you're, you're onto a winner straight away.

Laura Wilkes [00:57:39]:
And from there, I'm going, okay, do, do I want to and speak to people, join Facebook groups. You know, Women Drive Electric for me is such an incredible group because the women in that group can ask and talk about anything. I've stood at charges and told other women, Hey, go join this group because they will help you, and any question isn't stupid. And it's finding a safe space where you can ask those questions and not have, you know, not have your neighbour who doesn't like EVs go, oh, they're terrible. They're terrible. They'll suddenly blow up in the ranges and 0, and all of this. They're not the people you need to talk to. You need to talk to those who already have an EV.

Laura Wilkes [00:58:26]:
So go test drive. Just go and test drive one. Any, just pick one, go test drive it, and see what you like. And from there go speak to people. Facebook groups and speaking to people. Because it's the people who drive the EVs that will tell you how much they love them, but they'll also tell you probably the reality that there's no difference. You know, once you've made that change, you forget what it was like to drive an ICE vehicle to begin with. Just go speak to them.

Laura Wilkes [00:58:55]:
Just go talk. Go to a charger. Next time you're at a service station, a grid serve, let's take, for example, and you're at a service station and someone's at a charger. Just go talk to them. They will talk back 90% of the time. They'll probably they're probably happy to talk to you about it and see what they say. So yeah, that would be my advice.

Liz Allan [00:59:15]:
And, just was one very, very final thing. What, what things, what would you like to see happen with Paua over the next two or three years?

Laura Wilkes [00:59:26]:
World domination.

Liz Allan [00:59:27]:
Oh, there's always that one.

Laura Wilkes [00:59:31]:
I love it. Domination. That's what I'm going to go with. You know, we are already, we always call it the Holy Trinity. Having a home, public, and depot with the share and salary sacrifice on it. It's. We've already got the market so much now, the Paua needs to stay as it is. We are incredible.

Laura Wilkes [00:59:52]:
We love to innovate. We will keep changing and improving. We're just now waiting for other fleets and other businesses to want to make that transition to electric. And when they do. We are right there waiting for them, and we will help them. And world domination, obviously, we've got to do that.

Liz Allan [01:00:12]:
Honestly, Laura, it's been amazing talking to you, darling. I really, really appreciated your time. Just.

Laura Wilkes [01:00:19]:
Yeah, thank you.

Liz Allan [01:00:21]:
See, I told you you didn't need to get worried about this. You know, I know you'd been on my mate, my. My northern mate Gary's podcast, but, you know, you and you is just like a chat, aren't we?

Laura Wilkes [01:00:32]:
It's just us chatting.

Liz Allan [01:00:33]:
Exactly.

Laura Wilkes [01:00:33]:
This is. This will probably go on for another two hours anyway, so.

Liz Allan [01:00:37]:
No, because I still got to put my shopping away. Oh, listen, thank you, darling. And I'm going to say to everybody else watching and listening, please just find. Find Laura on. I'll put you. I'll put all your links in the show notes. Check her out. Check out Paua.

Liz Allan [01:00:56]:
They're all brilliant, absolutely brilliant people. The company's brilliant. And everything that you're trying to do is just innovation in the making, you know, so. So, yeah, but. And for our podcast, check us out on LinkedIn. We're on most of the social media platforms. We've got our page on LinkedIn, but, yeah, thank you for watching and listening. Thanks to. Thanks to Laura, and I will see you next time.

Liz Allan [01:01:22]:
Bye. Bye. Bye.