I'm curious why EV chargers seem to have so many more problems with vandalism than gas pumps. Is it just because EV chargers are typically not "manned" in any way? Or do we simply not hear about vandalized gas pumps because gas stations are so ubiquitous and themselves have more refueling points than a charge station to where occasional vandalism doesn't really affect the ability of people to refuel?
Or, option 3: culture war idiocy?
GauntletWizard•3mo ago
EVs chargers are known to contain about 5 lb of copper per cable, which is only about two bucks at black market scrap prices, but still enough to be worthwhile for the tweakers who are stripping it.
mrguyorama•3mo ago
Option Q; Gas pumps have less copper to steal
But when people like Aging Wheels on youtube or friends do cross country trips to evaluate how feasible such a trip is in electric vehicles for their audience, they find 10-50% of chargers to just be broken, no vandalism in sight. They will just be non-functional or randomly degraded function, or were poorly specced to begin with and be unable to deliver sufficient power to multiple vehicles at once. They simply do not get monitored and repaired in a timely fashion because the companies running them do not care.
Electrify America for example is something that VW set up as a "we are sooooo soorrrrryy" venture after the emissions scandal, so they aren't exactly invested in it being great.
Tesla Superchargers meanwhile more often are available, functional, and meeting their claimed specs. It's very good that they "opened" the system up.
ToucanLoucan•3mo ago
I was going to question how that's worth more than all the metals in a gas pump, but then I considered that fucking with a gas pump is probably notably more dangerous than an EV charger. The huge conductors that actually do that lifting aren't, AFAIK, energized until the unit detects a car that needs charging. They can probably just snip them off if they're of the mind to do so.
itopaloglu83•3mo ago
As always, it's the sales vs maintenance issue.
Maintaining any system is a lot of work, we don't see it much but even gas stations get broken or vandalized, but things get fixed. People tend to think that all we need to do is build things, but maintenance is a heavy task on its own, and nowadays everything is falling apart, especially when there are subsidies to only build these charging stations, so nobody cares about them once they're up and running even for a moment.
estimator7292•3mo ago
EV chargers are frequently located in some back corner of the parking lot, away from the storefront where humans can see, and out of sight of CCTV unless the property owner added them.
jerlam•3mo ago
There are a lot of subsidies / incentives for installing EV chargers, but keeping them operational is a different question entirely. Especially if they aren't actually making any money. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the early EV charging companies have already gone out of business.
I've been in parking garages where none of the existing EV chargers were functional, but they're busy installing new ones.
ToucanLoucan•3mo ago
Or, option 3: culture war idiocy?
GauntletWizard•3mo ago
mrguyorama•3mo ago
But when people like Aging Wheels on youtube or friends do cross country trips to evaluate how feasible such a trip is in electric vehicles for their audience, they find 10-50% of chargers to just be broken, no vandalism in sight. They will just be non-functional or randomly degraded function, or were poorly specced to begin with and be unable to deliver sufficient power to multiple vehicles at once. They simply do not get monitored and repaired in a timely fashion because the companies running them do not care.
Electrify America for example is something that VW set up as a "we are sooooo soorrrrryy" venture after the emissions scandal, so they aren't exactly invested in it being great.
Tesla Superchargers meanwhile more often are available, functional, and meeting their claimed specs. It's very good that they "opened" the system up.
ToucanLoucan•3mo ago
itopaloglu83•3mo ago
Maintaining any system is a lot of work, we don't see it much but even gas stations get broken or vandalized, but things get fixed. People tend to think that all we need to do is build things, but maintenance is a heavy task on its own, and nowadays everything is falling apart, especially when there are subsidies to only build these charging stations, so nobody cares about them once they're up and running even for a moment.
estimator7292•3mo ago
jerlam•3mo ago
I've been in parking garages where none of the existing EV chargers were functional, but they're busy installing new ones.