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From: Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
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Subject: Re: Yet Another Reason EVs are a Bad Choice
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2024 10:31:56 +1200
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On 2024-06-13 21:48:10 +0000, moviePig said:
> 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.

More like 75c for the cable, $100 for the insurance, and the remaining 
$899.25 for the installation by an electrician (including a $200 call 
out fee).