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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.
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