Sabotage of EV charging

[zetec]

Walking around my local estate I am seeing more and more EV’s plugged in for overnight charge.
One thing I have always wondered, what happens if the local youths find it amusing to simply unplug the charger, the owner gets up in the morning and is stranded with a dead car!
Can this happen or is the charging plug ‘locked in’ somehow?

[sandman77]

The charging plug is locked in during charging to prevent this.

[mat205125]

In this insane society, I fully expect a law suit being brought against a home owner from said type of vandalism, for a shock or trip injury they incur whilst tampering with the charging kit

[M.F.D]

As stated, it locks it in. However, I wouldn't want to test how strong the lock connection is and I am sure someone could force it off without great difficulty.

[PushedDover]

Or piepeople deciding to cut the cables to rob for the copper.

[motco]

PushedDover said:

Or piepeople deciding to cut the cables to rob for the copper.

A work colleague of mine was in Lagos back in the late 1970s and it was common to have power outages and also common for copper cables to be stolen during these outages. Less common, but not infrequent, was for a copper thief to be at work up a pole when the power came back on... Cue: smoking corpse falling to the ground. I wouldn't cut through a hefty mains cable known to be live!

[SWoll]

It'll happen of course, but as pointed out it's not as easy as just pulling the connector out and would take some significant force.

With fkwits like this around it's a compelling reason to get a Tesla with sentry mode though. Did make me wince..

[anonymous-user]

This is no more of a problem than people steeling fuel or cats from parked ICE's

Some people are idiots, they will vandalise things for fun. So yes, some EVs on charge will get vandilised, in the way that cars gets key'd, tyres slashed, or glass broken. Is it a big problem, no because most people aren't see you next tuesday's..........

[JonnyVTEC]

At Touchwood in Solihull I finally worked out why one charger would never work and engage the cable properly…

Someone had stuffed a sweet wrapper into the socket! I raised it with the shopping centre and thankfully it’s been removed and works fine now. So it happens!

[lost in espace]

I just nope nobody gets the idea to start smashing up rapids, it would be easy to do a load in an area and cause chaos.

[joropug]

We hired a Tesla chauffeur for an airport transfer and the chap told me a story.

He was charging in a car park in the middle of the night , as he had another pick up he was cleaning out the car and when outside it two homeless blokes approached him and tried to mug him - he legged it and luckily locked the car as he did so .

Whilst waiting for the police to arrive he saw on the app the charging had been interrupted so feared the car was stoved in - luckily for him the charger end of the cable broke before the car end!

[Frimley111R]

For most home chargers the cable doesn't lock in the charger, just the car. But in 5 years of being in the EV industry I have to say I've never heard of it happening.

[TheDeuce]

Lots of speculation about what thieves and vandals 'could' do... But I've never heard of any actual examples so far, so I think it's just not a problem. As pointed out, it's not easy to disconnect the power to the car as the lead is locked both ends. It's also not really worth the risk of attempting to steal for copper, it's not enough copper to justify the multiple risks taken.

If a person really wanted to mess with a car and make a few quid at the same time, it would surely be easier and safer break the lock on a fuel cap door and siphon the fuel out.

[TheDeuce]

Frimley111R said:

For most home chargers the cable doesn't lock in the charger, just the car. But in 5 years of being in the EV industry I have to say I've never heard of it happening.

Really? I thought they all locked both ends. Maybe it just happens that both our chargers do.

[kambites]

I don't see why it's any more likely than them letting your tyres down or kicking your door mirror off really, at least once the novelty has worn off.

[J4CKO]

Wont your app for your car tell you if its not charging ?

[Tommo87]

motco said:

PushedDover said:

Or piepeople deciding to cut the cables to rob for the copper.

A work colleague of mine was in Lagos back in the late 1970s and it was common to have power outages and also common for copper cables to be stolen during these outages. Less common, but not infrequent, was for a copper thief to be at work up a pole when the power came back on... Cue: smoking corpse falling to the ground. I wouldn't cut through a hefty mains cable known to be live!

Many train companies are still suffering from the threat of copper cables, by the 3.142 mob.

[JonnyVTEC]

There’s the potential of a replacement craft of the roofing lead thefts to be fair.

[Frimley111R]

TheDeuce said:

Frimley111R said:

For most home chargers the cable doesn't lock in the charger, just the car. But in 5 years of being in the EV industry I have to say I've never heard of it happening.

Really? I thought they all locked both ends. Maybe it just happens that both our chargers do.

No, not home ones generally. Some are also too small to fit the locking mechanism in. The socket/connectors fit pretty tightly too.

[48k]

Don't know about other EVs but on the XC40 the lock is released by a button next to the charge socket. It's not secure, anyone can press it.