Electric Car Cable thefts Out of Control! You will not believe the numbers…
Hi guys, welcome to Challenge the Road. We got to go through this cuz this crime wave apparently by the Telegraph is threatening electric car sales. So, we got to go through it. We spoke a lot about electric cars before and I remember doing some videos on this and talking about Porsche having a major outage at one of their dealers where they’re just cutting off the cables and selling the copper. But let’s just go through the article. It says, “Shortly before midnight on a Friday, two weeks ago, a man in a black hoodie and shorts emerged from the trees near a roadside pub in Chelford, Essex, brandishing a pair of garden shears, if you can believe it. One by one, he cut the cables attached to four electric charging stations before disappearing back into the darkness. A few minutes later, a black Ford Mustang Mackie pulled up to the chargers. Interesting. Electric car pulling up to take the charges. Um CC footage shows the man getting out of the car, grabbing the charging cable as if to plug in before quickly bundling it into his door uh boot and doing a runner. Little more than a minute. Let’s just go a bit further down here because I’m I’m interested in a few things on this one. How many are being taken, which I think you’re going to be astounded at the figures. I then wondered how many home charges are being taken, but I need you you for that bit. Have you had your home charger taken? Um I’ve seen a lot of video footage, but mainly abroad of that happening. Is it happening? Then how many arrests are there? Because we’ll go through that. And then can these charging companies make any money if this keeps happening? So let’s just have a look here. So um James Mo the chief executive charging company uh EV whose Essex site was hit in the attack suspects they used an EV so as not to arouse suspicion. He says most cable thefts aren’t as creative but their number is growing. Normally it’s a man and a van and it’s definitely getting worse and it’s growing problem for the industry. This is where it gets interesting now. Mo estimates that 300 charges around 100 of its 300 have been hit in the last 12 months. So that’s a third. Each replacement costs him around £30,000 plus thousands extra in security measures. That is a lot. It’s become a national problem and really kind kind of has started to ramp up at scale. He says there doesn’t seem to be any deterrent to stop an individual from doing it. The rising theft has been attributed to the soaring price of copper which we know has been going up. Gold, silver, all these things. uh widely used uh the metal widely used in electric cables last week climbed to £8,200 a ton up from around £75,000 3 years ago. So what’s that? £5,000. So it’s up a lot. This is where, you know, I want to talk to you about this cuz it’s the value. So how much is a cable worth? So although each cable only has around £30 worth of copper, bays of six or more charges mean it can add up. So we’re looking at £180 there for six cables. The wave of thefts which has been attributed to organized crime is a new phenomenon. It’s it’s a little bit like the phone stuff at the moment, isn’t it? That’s getting out of control in London. So there’s 40,000 thefts of phones. Obviously I’m in, you know, a mobile phone business. So I get lots of calls. Richard, someone’s grabbed my phone. Um when we went to London Concor last year, someone grabbed my friend’s phone out their hand on the way to meeting me. We had to get them another phone the same day. So this is happening. Um Osprey, one of the biggest charging networks, says its first saw a case in the late 2023, but incidents are steadily growing. This is the big figure. At peak this summer, Osprey estimates that 1 in 10 of the UK’s 17,000 rapid and ultra rapid charges were out of action due to cable thefts. That is massive, 10%. So 1,700 cables, that’s that’s a lot of copper. A lot of copper. Instavolt, Britain’s biggest rapid charging network, says 990 cables have been stolen since 2023. The majority of them this year, so it’s growing. Um I I just wanted what I thought was with the cables, I thought you’d get electric shock, but I think we we’ll go on to that. So I want to just look at what companies are doing. Okay, so charging companies has spent much of this year focusing on security upgrades to try and prevent further thefts. Osprey has developed an alarm system linked to cut cables, which it says has already scared off thieves. So, they’re starting to put alarms in them. Instavolt has installed GPS trackers in its chargers, allowing staff to track uh cables when criminals make getaways. So, basically is the damage is already done then, isn’t it? Um, I wonder if CCT Oh, that goes on to that. Most companies are now protecting cables with armored uh cabling uh making them more difficult to cut than household objects like shears as well as installing CCTV and hiring physical security. I feel that might be more of the way forward, physical security only because if you’re charging your car late at night, you’re on your own. I don’t know. Even when I go to garages sometimes late at night, I don’t feel overly comfortable. Maybe that’s just me. So, do I want to sit in my car for 40 minutes? No, not really. In uh in some cases, this has proven successful, but it comes at a cost. Most charging companies are loss making and spend heavily to expand the network. Um, which we know. We know that there’s a lot of charging companies that haven’t done very well. We go on to that. So EVs make up 23% of new car sales. Da da da da da. Okay. Right. This was the next bit I wanted to look at. So on here I wanted to look at arrests and the viability of some of these companies. So we go into that. So I I tried to look at into AI into the arrests. Um and I’ve seen a couple here. I’m just looking on the BBC. It says couple’s financial nightmare over EV cable theft. This is a home one. It’s been targeted. Um, now, interestingly, the insurance company initially refused to pay and then agreed later and there was a £100 excess. So, I just thinking if you’re charging from home, will you have to declare you’ve got a home charger to have it insured? I’m going to look into that a bit more with Howen’s. We’ve got a partnership with them. There’s a link on the uh on this video that if you’re looking at, you know, car insurance, you can use us and Hensen’s. Um, couple said the aftermath had been a nightmare and couples still have no facility to charge their car. Da da da. It’s all the damage that’s going to be done, isn’t it? And it’s going to cost money. Um, arrests again, I put that into AI. I couldn’t find that many arrests. It is I I just can’t see the police chasing round a guy in a van for £100 of cables. Can you? So, I don’t think there’s many arrests going on. and I feel like this problem is going to run and run. Then I put in to AI and this is where it gets quite interesting now. So I was thinking how many charging networks have gone bust and it says um none of them have but obviously a lot of them have been taken over. Podpoint I think was taken over by EDF etc. And it says on here at the moment key struggles for UK charging networks financial pressures. Um no warning about reduced demand. This was partly due to market uncertainty following the government reviews of net zero vehicle targets. Reliability issues. Again an interesting one. User reports often highlight faultier unavailable park public charge points. A survey by ZapMat found that one in five public charges was out of order at any given time. One in five. It’s ridiculous. So regular maintenance theft of uh copper cables which has prompted companies like Instavolt to install extra security measures. Uh the network is unevenly distributed across the country creating charging deserts in rural areas where urban locations see oversaturation. Many charge points are also located in impractical places with many going unused. Grid connection delays. Charge point operators freently frequently face long waits for grid connections which slows down installation and expansion projects. High costs. Drivers who rely on public charging networks, particularly those without off- streetet parking, face significantly higher cost due to higher VAT rate compared to home charging. Some networks such as Shell Recharge have been criticized for being particularly expensive. Well, you know the videos I done, I’ll put a link to them. It costing me a fortune. Um, inadequate government schemes. Not so sure on that. I think the government are putting too much into this EV, especially with all the discounts of corporation tax, etc. Now, this doesn’t mean to say I’m not looking at an EV and I think if the, you know, the cost of them just keeps depreciating the way it is, I am looking at tans again, but I want to be in at 20,000. Now, I know they were £100,000 car. I know you can get them under 30. 20k is unbelievable car. I’d charge from home. I think if you’re having to rely on the outside network, it’s not great, but if you’re charging at home, you could could make substantial savings. Um, and also have a fantastic car because that Porsche was pretty awesome to drive. So, what are your views? Have you had your charger stolen? Are you putting in precautions? Is there a way of stopping this? I saw some of them where they’re taking the charger from home and they’re just unplugging it. And I think, well, how can you do that? Because you can’t unplug it surely because it’s locked to the car. So, I’m I’m thinking how do you So, if you cut a car that’s being charged, wouldn’t you get electric shock? So, anyway, they’re all the things. So, hope you enjoy these videos. Please like, share, subscribe, and I’ll see you again soon.
Quite staggering numbers of Charger cables being stolen, have you been effected?
Richard
Howden Insurance Partnership – Private client – join us today for a quote on the link below
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Thank you Richard
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