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DETROIT (AP) \u2014 Just before 2 a.m. on a chilly April night in Seattle, a Chevrolet Silverado pickup stopped at an electric vehicle charging station on the edge of a shopping center parking lot.<\/p>\n
Two men, one with a light strapped to his head, got out. A security camera recorded them pulling out bolt cutters. One man snipped several charging cables; the other loaded them into the truck. In under 2\u00bd minutes, they were gone.<\/p>\n
The scene that night has become part of a troubling pattern across the country: Thieves have been targeting EV charging stations, intent on stealing the cables, which contain copper wiring. The price of copper is near a record high on global markets, which means criminals stand to collect rising sums of cash from selling the material.<\/p>\n
The stolen cables often disable entire stations, forcing EV owners on the road to search desperately for a working charger. For the owners, the predicament can be exasperating and stressful.<\/p>\n
Broken-down chargers have emerged as the latest obstacle for U.S. automakers in their strenuous effort to convert more Americans to EVs despite widespread public anxiety about a scarcity of charging stations.\u00a0About 4 in 10 U.S. adults<\/a>\u00a0say they believe EVs take too long to charge or don\u2019t know of any charging stations nearby.<\/p>\n If even finding a charging station doesn\u2019t necessarily mean finding functioning cables, it becomes one more reason for skeptical buyers to stick with traditional gasoline-fueled or hybrid vehicles, at least for now.<\/p>\n America\u2019s major automakers have made heavy financial bets that buyers will shift away from combustion engines and embrace EVs as the world faces the worsening consequences of climate change. Accordingly, the companies have poured billions into EVs.<\/p>\n Stellantis<\/a> envisions 50% of its passenger cars being EVs by the end of 2030. Ford set a target of producing 2 million EVs per year by 2026 \u2014 about 45% of its global sales \u2014 though it has since suspended that goal. General Motors<\/a>, the most ambitious of the three, has pledged to sell only EV passenger cars by the end of 2035.<\/p>\n Any such timetables, of course, hinge on whether the companies can convince more would-be EV buyers that a charge will always be available when they travel. The rise in cable thefts isn\u2019t likely to strengthen the automakers\u2019 case.<\/p>\n Two years ago, according to Electrify America, which runs the nation\u2019s second-largest network of direct-current fast chargers, a cable might be cut perhaps every six months at one of its 968 charging stations, with 4,400 plugs nationwide. Through May this year, the figure reached 129 \u2014 four more than in all of 2023. At one Seattle station, cables were cut six times in the past year, said Anthony Lambkin, Electrify America\u2019s vice president of operations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re enabling people to get to work, to take their kids to school, get to medical appointments,\u201d Lambkin said. \u201cSo to have an entire station that\u2019s offline is pretty impactful to our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n Two other leading EV charging companies \u2014 Flo and EVgo \u2014 also have reported a rise in thefts. Charging stations in the Seattle area have been a frequent target. Sites in Nevada, California, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Pennsylvania have been hit, too.<\/p>\n Stations run by Tesla<\/a>, which operates the nation\u2019s largest fast-charging network, have been struck in Seattle, Oakland and Houston. So far this year, Seattle police have reported seven cases of cable thefts from charging stations, matching the number for all of 2023. Thieves hit Tesla stations four times this year compared with just once last year, the Seattle police said.<\/p>\n \u201cVandalism of public charging infrastructure in the Seattle metro area has unfortunately been increasing in frequency,\u201d EVgo said.<\/p>\n The company said law enforcement officials are investigating the thefts while it tries to repair inoperable stations and considers a longer-term solution.<\/p>\n The problem isn\u2019t confined to urban areas. In rural Sumner, Washington, south of Seattle, thieves cut cables twice at a Puget Sound Energy charging station. The company is working with police and the property owner to protect the station.<\/p>\n Until a month ago, police in Houston knew of no cable thefts. Then one was stolen from a charger at a gas station. The city has now recorded eight or nine such thefts, said Sgt. Robert Carson, who leads a police metal-theft unit.<\/p>\n In one case, thieves swiped 18 of 19 cords at a Tesla station. That day, Carson visited the station to inspect the damage. In the first five minutes that he was there, Carson said, about 10 EVs that needed charging had to be turned away.<\/p>\n In very large cities like Houston, charging stations typically contain an especially large number of plugs and cables, so thefts can be particularly damaging.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not just taking one,\u201d Carson said. \u201cWhen they\u2019re hit, they\u2019re hit pretty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n