Re: Yet Another Reason EVs are a Bad Choice

On Thu, 13 Jun 2024 21:56:00 +0000
BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

On Jun 13, 2024 at 2:16:20 PM PDT, "Rhino"
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
 

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.
 
 ----------------------------------
 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. 

 
Then you're just going to have thieves breaking into cars and
stealing their cables the same way they're vandalizing gas-powered
cars for their catalytic converters.

Probably. Still it would entail somewhat more risk than just pulling up
to a vacant recharging station and cutting the cables with bolt cutters
so it might discourage SOME theft while implementing the better
solutions.

 
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