Lloyd MINI Local Influencers: Business Development Manager at St Cuthbert's Hospice makes the switch
Kay Carrick, the Development Team Manager at St Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham, was out and about recently in a MINI Electric from Lloyd Motor Group as part of the Lloyd MINI Local Influencers series. The series sees local company's experience and share with their followers what making the switch to electric driving is really like.
St Cuthbert’s Hospice provides palliative and end-of-life care to those in the Durham area affected by life-limiting illnesses, at a time and a place that is right for them. Their ethos is to provide a warm, welcoming, and compassionate environment and, as a team, strive to provide the highest standard of care possible by ensuring staff are up to date with current research and training. Fundraising and corporate support are key to running and sustaining the high level of care that St Cuthbert’s Hospice provides, and Kay’s role and the ability for her to easily travel to networking and business meetings are integral to this.
In a previous role, Kay was part of a promotion team that launched the ‘new MINI’ in 2001 so was excited to see what the future of MINI looked (and drove) like when she collected the MINI Electric for a few days. The industrious Development Team Manager’s electric journey included travel to Belmont for a Durham Business Group Meeting, Ramside Hall for St Cuthbert’s Hospice Ladies’ Lunch fundraiser, along with a number of other meetings.
Kay gave us an overview of how she found the MINI Electric and what making the switch to electric was like for her.
How did you find the range of the MINI Electric?
I was impressed, on the first day I had quite a journey-heavy day and by the end I’d only used an eighth of my battery, meaning I had loads of miles to go before I had to even think about charging!
What did you think of driving the MINI Electric?
That thing is nippy! And so fun to drive… I had a MINI when they first launched the new one and loved it – this one was the same. It certainly got a lot of attention whilst I was out and about too, with lots of my contacts admiring my wheels and really getting involved in my electric journey, some even gave me advice on the best charging points locations. There were also lots of comments from the business community about how they think it’s time they should go EV for their next car if they hadn’t already.
How easy did you find charging the MINI Electric?
I did have a slight hiccup at a charge point I used that was out of order in Gateshead, but I was heading to my local Tesco’s that evening and their Pod Point charger was SUPER EASY to use and even better, it was free. You can’t beat basically the equivalent of free petrol, especially with all of the increased living cost news that seems to be surrounding us at the moment. With over 42,000 charge points across the UK (which is more than petrol stations), even a slight charging challenge was easy to resolve.
Do you think you’ll be making the switch for your next car?
I would definitely make the switch to electric driving, especially as the infrastructure keeps getting better and better (and definitely in a MINI).
Find out more about making the switch with the MINI Electric by clicking here and keep an eye out for our #LloydMINILocalInfluencers series on social media.
