[ad_1]
Supplied
Reports of thefts of both public charging cables and private personal charging cables are on the rise in the US and the UK.
Whilst electric vehicles are commonly considered more difficult to steal than their petrol or diesel counterparts, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t susceptible to thefts of a different kind.
Reports of thieves targeting electric vehicle charging cables have surfaced from multiple cities in the US, including locations in Nevada and California.
Apart from being relatively expensive pieces of kit (priced anywhere from a few hundred dollars for used and aftermarket cables, to in the thousands for certain OEM cords), charging cables are also valuable to thieves because of the copper used in their construction.
VANESSA LAURIE/Stuff
A newly built Tesla Supercharger site in California had all of its cables cut and stolen last year.
A recent report from NBC4 Los Angeles detailed the case of Audi e-tron owner Bob Schneiderman. After noticing that the charging cable for his car was missing, he reviewed his security camera footage to find that a masked person unplugged the cable early in the morning.
According to Schneiderman, the replacement cost of the cable was US$2,700, or roughly $4,400. The theft took barely a few seconds, with the thief able to simply walk up to the car, unplug the cable from both ends, and walk away.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Schneiderman said. “It made no sense. I thought maybe I’d left it somewhere. […] I never had a concern about charging my car in the driveway. I’ve had electric cars for eight years, and never had a problem.”
MATTHEW HANSEN/STUFF
Tesla has opened the doors to its second store in Auckland, featuring a huge car delivery area, parts area, and service center.
NBC4 referenced numerous claims from other California residents of charging cables being stolen, including one Nextdoor app user’s claim that they chased someone who had stolen their EV charger – the apparent thief dropping a backpack while he escaped, with another charger inside.
In February of last year, a new Tesla Supercharger station in Oakhurst, California, had all of its cables cut and stolen. Similar thefts have occurred in the UK, too, with Express reporting in April of this year that there had been a “spate of thefts” in Hungerford, Berkshire.
It is unclear whether this trend has made its way to New Zealand’s shores yet. In a statement to Stuff, an NZ Police spokesperson said that the group does not record specific data on these kinds of thefts.
“This is not something Police keeps specific data on. Police code by incident type (i.e. burglary, theft, assault) and do not have a way of isolating out reports of specific item types taken,” said the spokesperson.
For those concerned about cable thefts, there are several ways to reduce the risk of being targeted. These include charging your vehicle inside a garage or out of sight of passersby, using a dashcam (or Sentry Mode, if you’re a Tesla owner), or simply reducing how often you charge your vehicle at night.
[ad_2]