Re: Yet Another Reason EVs are a Bad Choice

On Thu, 13 Jun 2024 00:20:39 +0000
BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

I've noticed that several of the EV charging stations at my local
mall seem to have the cables ripped out. (There are also huge swaths
of L.A. that are now dark at night because thieves have ripped apart
streetlights to steal the copper inside.) So now even if you happen
to find one of the rare chargers that can 'fuel-up' your EV, you're
likely to find it useless due to thievery.
 
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DETROIT (AP) — Just before 2AM on a chilly April night in Seattle, a
Chevrolet Silverado pickup stopped at an electric vehicle charging
station on the edge of a shopping center parking lot. Two men, one
with a light strapped to his head, got out. A security camera
recorded them pulling out bolt cutters. One man snipped several
charging cables; the other loaded them into the truck. In under 2½
minutes, they were gone.
 
The scene that night has become part of a troubling pattern across the
country: Thieves have been targeting EV charging stations, intent on
stealing the cables, which contain copper wiring. The price of copper
is near a record high on global markets, which means criminals stand
to collect rising sums of cash from selling the material.
 
The stolen cables often disable entire stations, forcing EV owners on
the road to search desperately for a working charger. For the owners,
the predicament can be exasperating and stressful.
 
Broken-down chargers have emerged as the latest obstacle for U.S.
automakers in their strenuous effort to convert more Americans to EVs
despite widespread public anxiety about a scarcity of charging
stations. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults say they believe EVs take too
long to charge or don't know of any charging stations nearby.
 
If even finding a charging station doesn't necessarily mean finding
functioning cables, it becomes one more reason for skeptical buyers
to stick with traditional gasoline-fueled or hybrid vehicles, at
least for now.
 
Two years ago, according to Electrify America, which runs the nation’s
second-largest network of direct-current fast chargers, a cable might
be cut perhaps every six months at one of its 968 charging stations,
with 4,400 plugs nationwide. Through May this year, the figure
reached 129-- four more than in all of 2023. At one Seattle station,
cables were cut six times in the past year, said Anthony Lambkin,
Electrify America's vice president of operations.
 
"We're enabling people to get to work, to take their kids to school,
get to medical appointments," Lambkin said. "So to have an entire
station that's offline is pretty impactful to our customers."
 
Until a month ago, police in Houston knew of no cable thefts. Then
one was stolen from a charger at a gas station. The city has now
recorded eight or nine such thefts, said Sgt. Robert Carson, who
leads a police metal-theft unit.
 
In one case, thieves swiped 18 of 19 cords at a Tesla station. That
day, Carson visited the station to inspect the damage. In the first
five minutes that he was there, Carson said, about 10 EVs that needed
charging had to be turned away. In very large cities like Houston,
charging stations typically contain an especially large number of
plugs and cables, so thefts can be particularly damaging. "They're
not just taking one," Carson said. "When they're hit, they're hit
pretty hard."
 
The charging companies say it’s become clear that the thieves are
after the copper that the cables contain. In late May, copper hit a
record high of nearly $5.20 a pound, a result, in part, of rising
demand resulting from efforts to cut carbon emissions with EVs that
use more copper wiring. The price is up about 25% from a year ago,
and many analysts envision further increases.
 
Charging companies say there isn’t actually very much copper in the
cables, and what copper is there is difficult to extract. Carson
estimates that criminals can get $15 to $20 per cable at a scrap
yard. "They're not making a significant amount of money," he said.
"They're not going to be sailing on a yacht anywhere."
 
Still, the more cables the thieves can steal, the more they can cash
in. At $20 a cable, 20 stolen cables could fetch $400.
 
The problem for the charging companies is that it’s much costlier to
replace cables. In Minneapolis, where cables have been clipped at
city-owned charging stations, it costs about $1,000 to replace just
one cable, said Joe Laurin, project manager in the Department of
Public Works.
 
 

I can think of several solutions to this problem, though some would
require some research:
1. Find a material to use that isn't copper but works well enough.
(That's the one that requires research.)
2. Wrap the cables in metal cladding to make it harder to cut. That's
been done for years.
3. Instead of providing a cable at the charging station, let the car
owner provide it; the charger would only contain a port/receptacle for
the cable. Initially, the cable could be kept in the trunk like booster
cables but eventually the engineers would figure out a more elegant way
to keep it hidden away and just pull out of the car somehow.
4. Figure out how to charge wirelessly. I can charge my phone
wirelessly by just laying it on the charging station. (Doing the
same for a car might require some research.)
5. Secure the facility so that only EV owners with a key card can
enter. That would make it harder for the thieves to do their thieving.

--
Rhino