Re: Yet Another Reason EVs are a Bad Choice

On Jun 13, 2024 at 1:36:30 PM PDT, "anim8rfsk" <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

moviePig <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:

 On 6/12/2024 8:20 PM, BTR1701 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.
 
 ----------------------------------
 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.

 
 Sounds like you'd want to strongly discourage this particular theft...
 

 
Sounds like whoever’s charging $1000 a cable may be the real crook

My favorite EV moment was the idiot who we saw standing next to his car at the
mall, holding the charger the same way people hold the gas nozzle while
filling up. He was "pumping" electricity into his car, I guess.