As a child, Nicki would regularly attend F1 races with her father – dreaming of getting pole position at Silverstone. She also took part in go-cart races and track days. Nicki's studies led to a degree in Biological Sciences, but upon graduating she launched into a job at Swiss bank UBS – on her way to founding a social media company. At 27, her career took a hairpin that landed her in a reporting role for the likes of ‘The Gadget Show' and ‘Escape to the Country'. In 2016, Nicki joined the team at ‘Supercharged', focusing on electric vehicle racing – through to presenting the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship on Channel 4 and the BBC.
We managed to catch up with her to find out more about her EV journey.
Tell us about the first time you drove an electric vehicle and your most memorable EV drive?
“I first drove an electric car back in 2013 and it was a little Nissan Leaf…and I will admit it right now, it was a really awful experience! The infrastructure was terrible and we couldn’t charge. Electric cars are now awesome, packed full of the most innovative technology and they’re great fun to drive.
The beauty of driving an electric car is the instant acceleration you get when you put your foot down, the power is instant. Just like when you switch on a light. Rather than with a petrol or diesel car, it takes time for that fuel to trickle through and get the car started.
My most memorable EV drive has to be driving the Gen 1 Formula E car. I was the first non professional female to drive it, it was such a buzz and honour! (even though I did over-cook it and it went off onto the gravel… Shhh!).”
Which EV do you drive right now and what kind of charger do you have installed at home?
“I drive the BMW iX electric car as it’s super reliable and a great family car. I have Hive’s new at home charger. The charger was developed in partnership with EO Charging, one of the UK’s leading EV charger manufacturers, and at the size of an A5 notebook is one of the smallest electric car chargers on the market.”
‘Formula E and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government have been working together to bring the race to the city – in order to support the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) initiative – as part of the ‘Zero Emission Tokyo’ strategy. The city has a climate action plan that aims to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.' (Source: FIA Formula E)
As someone who has studied environmental sciences and sustainability at university, what are your thoughts on this announcement?
“It’s absolutely brilliant progress and a partnership with such an iconic city, and is one of the reasons Formula E exists. It’s not just a racing championship, it stands for so much more than that. This will help educate and encourage Tokyo to go electric and reduce air pollution, and hopefully hit their net zero target.”
What obstacles are preventing a wider adoption of electric vehicles? What changes need to be made to accelerate greener travel in the UK?
“The infrastructure of the public charging network still has a way to go, although the rate of expansion and development is really speeding up which is a positive sign. We also now have a much wider choice of models and the range of an EV is more in line with a tank of fuel, which previously wasn’t the case. We need to get more people to test driving electric cars, they are great fun to drive and not dissimilar to driving a normal internal combustion engine car.
Generally I think we need better education about making the switch to EV as there are still quite a lot of common misconceptions which we are working to dispel. For example, people assume EVs take a long time to charge, but if you have access to home charging you can charge your car overnight and not be impacted by the charge time.
On average a 7kW home charger will take 6-8 hours to fill the battery, so when I charge overnight, I’m good to go in the morning. And people can get overwhelmed with the idea of installation, when in reality it is really straightforward. Hive even guides customers through the EV charger process, from start to finish with installation from an expert British Gas-approved engineer and 24/7 support available on demand.”
Tell us about your partnership with Hive
“As a lover of electric cars, I have chosen to partner with Hive to help share awareness on how adopting EV’s can make your day to day easier, cheaper and more sustainable. But one of the biggest hurdles in the journey to owning an EV is common myths – that’s why my partnership with Hive is so important to dispel myths and help start people on their own EV journeys.”
One of WhichEV’s most successful videos centred on a Hive/British Gas installation – which has achieved over 110,000 views. It seemed to answer a lot of ‘basic charger set up’ questions for people. Are you surprised about how little knowledge there seems to be about chargers and the selection/installation process?
“When making the switch to electric there is a lot to get your head around. New information, new tech and new jargon. It’s always quite daunting making a change…trying to start something when you have no idea about what the process involves or really understand the technology behind it, so I you have to put your trust in the engineer when getting a home charger.
Education on the installation is key when starting your EV journey. It was very straightforward to book in for an engineer to come and assess the site and to see what we needed and what we already had in place. And then the installation engineer came to actually fit the charger, which was quick! It’s probably taken maybe two or three visits but ultimately the sort of main installation time was about 3-4 hours.
The engineer was really lovely, explained everything, was very reassuring in the process and I think what stood out to me is that it was always safety first and the engineer made sure that what was being installed was right for the house and the infrastructure that’s already there, and checking that it was going to be safe and for me, that’s paramount.”
“The British Gas PeakSave tariff allows customers to charge their EVs for less as it provides off-peak electricity between 12am and 5am at under 10p per kWh. What’s also amazing is that British Gas and Hive are offering all Hive EV charging customers £100 credit back on their first energy bill for switching to an exclusive British Gas PeakSave tariff. New Hive EV charging customers will also receive £50 Hive vouchers to spend on any Hive technology.”
Finally, if you had to give our readers a 1-2-3 to consider when thinking about a switch to an EV with a home charger that’s powered by electricity from renewable sources – what would that list look like?
“1. It's really small so it looks great. I really don’t like it when some of the home wall boxes are really quite huge and unattractive, whereas this is tiny, quite simplistic in design, and looks good!
2. Also, the functionality is brilliant because it’s integrated into the Hive app which is super useful because I actually use it already for my home, heating, and monitor the charging from there. And the brilliant thing about the app is I can actually schedule when I want to charge the car.
3. Being able to charge overnight when the tariff is cheaper is my favourite reason. I’ve chosen an EV specific energy tariff which means I get cheaper overnight charging rates. I can then schedule that through the Hive app to make sure that when I’m charging I get the lowest rate possible and ultimately that’s why the new Hive EO Charger, because we want to save money, time and energy.” 
We really appreciate Nicki making the time to chat with us about he passion for EVs. Especially, the way her experience evolved from a difficult start (before the technology was anywhere near mature) – through to today, where everything from her job to her family's primary transportation = are all electric vehicles.
For more information about the Hive EV charging with EO Mini Pro 3 click here.