There’s not much copper in electric vehicle (EV) chargers, but that isn’t stopping thieves in the US from raiding stations for the metal.
Automotive News reports 129 charging cables were stolen from Electrify America charging stations in the first five months of this year, more than in the entire 2023 calendar year (125).
Electrify America has one of the largest charging networks in the country, and says cut cables cost US$2000 to US$4000 (~A$3000-$6000) to replace.
It’s even more detrimental to companies like EVgo, which are yet to be profitable; the company says vandalism has also increased at its stations.
The US state of Washington has become a hotspot for the theft of copper from charge cables with 89 cables cut from Electrify America locations there between January 1 and July 11.
However, thieves have also struck chargers in other parts of the country including southern states like Texas and Tennessee.
But the issue isn’t as prevalent in Australia.
“We see very little vandalism and copper theft is almost non-existent,” said John Sullivan, CEO of Chargefox – one of Australia’s largest EV charging networks.
Studies have shown Australians already have reservations about buying EVs due to the lack of reliable infrastructure, with one published by the Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) earlier this year finding this was the second largest concern drivers had with EVs.
Should copper theft become more common here, that would inconvenience EV owners that have already been impacted by Telstra and Optus outages and unreliable Tritium chargers when they’ve gone to top up their cars.
As experts point out, hacking off charge cables with saws to get the copper inside is a fool’s errand.
“The copper is encased in serious insulation, so you don’t actually get raw copper from the cable,” said Travis Allan, chief legal and public affairs officer at Flo EV Charging, to Automotive News.
“It is completely Sisyphean to try to get money out of coated, small wires,” he added, noting the danger of handling said high-powered electric wires.
Still, thieves are attempting the dangerous task as the cost per pound of copper has increased from US$3.80 to $US4.50 (A$5.67 to $6.72) over the past 12 months.
