While it's encouraging that more charging locations for EVs seem to be springing up, if vandals are hitting the stations en masse it doesn't do drivers any good.
A Redditor shared photos of the latest frustrating example of the problem to the r/SantaClarita subreddit.
In their post they shared pictures showing a three-charger Electrify America station with missing cables and a "Charger unavailable" message on the monitor. They asked the community "Who does this?"
That prompt garnered a few ideas.
"Looks like someone cut the cable to harvest $2 worth of scrap cable," a user theorized.
Another user countered and wrote, "in that area it's more likely someone is just triggered by the existence" of EVs.
Lastly a user guessed that the perpetrators "stole the wiring for its copper," which another user in the industry suspected as well.
Whatever the true answer, Redditors asserted it wasn't the first time and that bike tool stations near the chargers' purported Stevenson Ranch location also had been vandalized. The Santa Clarita area is far from the only community that has dealt with charging station vandalism.
Not only does this make for an inconvenience that heightens range anxiety for current EV drivers, it discourages drivers of gas-powered vehicles weighing the switch. Home charging, especially with a Level 2 charger, is a winner for EV drivers, but some drivers don't have the real estate or means to install one.
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Chargers not working 🚫 Widespread adoption of EVs can play a major role in reducing our collective reliance on dirty energy sources and their associated air pollution. While EVs aren't perfect and can add to pollution either in extracting the materials for their batteries or the electricity for charging, they still are a net-positive for the environment. There are many efforts to improve upon EV batteries and minimize the toll on the environment.
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Anti-EV stunts like vandalism of charging stations, keying cars, and "rolling coal" stand in the way of this progress.
One commenter on the Reddit post seemed resigned to the trend.
They wrote: "I have a feeling eventually we're gonna end up being like other countries in Europe, and having to carry around our own cable and the Chargers won't even have cables on them."
They called the development "unfortunate because it's pretty easy to just pull and plug in."
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