As electric vehicle drivers search for ways to charge their cars in Las Vegas, they’re being stumped by a new form of theft: charging cables from EV charging stations, WENY News reports.
Across the Las Vegas Valley, thieves are targeting electric vehicle charging cables.
According to ChargeHub, there are 1,147 public charging stations within a 15-kilometer (about nine-mile) radius of Las Vegas. These public chargers are available to the city’s growing number of EV drivers. NPR reported that the number of EV registrations in the area nearly doubled in just one year, from December 2021 to December 2022, and continues to grow. However, if charging stations are destroyed, it will become more difficult for drivers to share public utilities.
“It’s 100% frustrating, on top of waiting to charge,” EV driver James Johnson told WENY, noting that the cables have been destroyed at least 10 times, lengthening wait times from 45 minutes to three hours.
According to Electrify America, a major US public charging company, thieves target the cords because there’s money to be made from the copper wires, which the Associated Press reports are tiny, with scrap yards estimating they can fetch $15 to $20 per cable.
“It’s a very unfortunate situation,” Electrify Americas president Anthony Lamkin told WENY. “The value of the scrap is tiny compared to what it would cost to install the charging cables.”
The cost of replacing a stolen cable can cost up to $4,000 per autoevolution.
Electric vehicles can save drivers thousands of dollars a year on fuel costs, according to CLEAResults, and offer a cleaner, more affordable energy solution. But electric vehicles remain in the minority in the U.S.: Just 6.8% of new car sales in May were electric, according to Edmunds.
A recent Associated Press poll found that American drivers are reluctant to switch to electric vehicles because they take too long to charge and because there are no nearby charging stations.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the number of EV charging stations is increasing every year, but there is still a lack of infrastructure to encourage drivers to switch to electric vehicles. Combined with vandalism, EV chargers can be unreliable: One driver in Arizona found multiple stations vandalized at a public charging station, while another tried four chargers at one station without success.
That makes the work of companies like Electrify America all the more important. “We serve hundreds of thousands of drivers every week,” Lamkin says. “We consider ourselves mission-critical infrastructure.” The company is working with police to combat theft and is installing more security cameras at its gas stations.
Other drivers and companies have also shared their own solutions to combat cable theft: Tesla has installed video cameras in its Supercharger stations, according to Torque News.
“Any metal recycling stores found buying these chargers should be put out of business,” commented one Reddit user in Washington state who was experiencing the same problem, “as well as those buying stolen catalytic converters.”
“They should put a locked door on the cable that unlocks when you insert your credit card, or make it retractable,” another user commented.
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