From: moviePig <nobody@nowhere.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Yet Another Reason EVs are a Bad Choice
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2024 17:48:10 -0400
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On 6/13/2024 4:36 PM, anim8rfsk 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

$153.17 for the cable, $946.83 for the electrocution insurance.