Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2024 03:27:51 -0500
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Subject: Re: Yet Another Reason EVs are a Bad Choice
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On 6/16/24 5:10 PM, BTR1701 wrote:
> On Jun 13, 2024 at 3:32:55 PM PDT, "Rhino" <no_offline_contact@example.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> 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.
> 
> Our society is in slow-motion collapse and the leftists in charge seem to like
> it that way:


That sentence must be word for word out of the white supremacists 
handbook.  And when you think about it is there anything more oxymoronic 
than "white supremacist?"


> 
> https://www.cbsnews.com/news/thieves-steal-metal-los-angeles-6th-street-bridge-ribbon-of-light-goes-dark/
> 
> Hundreds of people every day walk on Los Angeles' 6th Street Bridge, but at
> sundown they disappear, and the "Ribbon of Light" goes completely in the
> dark.
> 
> "About 7 miles from end to end of copper wire that has been stolen," L.A. City
> Councilman Kevin de León told CBS News. "So these lights are becoming ATM
> machines."
> 
> The eye-catching bridge-- which traverses the L.A. River and the 101 Freeway,
> connecting the historic Boyle Heights neighborhood to the downtown L.A. Arts
> District-- opened to great fanfare in July 2022 and at a cost of nearly $600
> million, but now has Angelenos shaking their heads in dismay.
> 
> Over the past year, thieves have gradually stripped the lights, poles and
> copper wiring that illuminate the bridge's arches. The stolen metal in total
> is worth about $11,000, according to de León.
> 
> Hundreds of fire hydrants across the city have also been stolen for scrap
> metal since last year. Security video showed suspects using a truck to knock
> one down and haul it away.
> 
> "It's mind boggling that somebody would just come into a neighborhood and
> steal a fire hydrant," Angeleno Krystal Cousins said. Many replacements now
> have locks to prevent access to the bolts.
> 
> Meanwhile, city officials don't plan on replacing the bridge's lights until
> they can find a way to stop the thieves from picking the bridge apart.


Copper is valuable.  Do you have a fucking point?  Ever?