Tesla is testing a few artistic options to attempt to stop charging cable thefts at its Supercharging stations, which has change into a major problem for all charging station operators.
There are nonetheless numerous issues with public charging stations for electrical autos. There are points with the variety of stations, the variety of chargers pers station, peak costs, which will increase costs, and the reliability.
A number of components have an effect on he reliability and uptime of a station, together with having charging cables.
Consider it or not, it’s not unusual for thieves to focus on charging stations to chop the cables off the charging stalls to be able to promote the steel in them.
Tesla operates extra DC fast-charging stations than anybody and due to this fact, it’s a massive goal for these thieves.
The automaker has now confirmed that it’s testing new methods to attempt to stop these cable theft.
First, it’s presently testing a brand new wrap across the cable. It has been noticed at a Tesla Supercharger in Seattle, Washington (Reddit):
These are DyeDefender, which include small hoses that wrap across the cable and if they’re lower, they shoot dye throughout.
It appears to be like one thing like this:
Tesla’s head of charging, Max de Zegher, confirmed that Tesla is testing the answer.
He additionally stated that Tesla is engraving the steel within the cables:
Supercharger cables may also have “Property of Tesla” engraved from our Buffalo NY manufacturing unit, so recycling corporations shouldn’t settle for them and notify us. It’s a scalable, cost-effective answer that doesn’t impression service operations & buyer expertise.
He shared this image on X:
So long as the scrapyards and recycling amenities are keen to implement this, it might assist deter thieves from stealing the cables if they aren’t in a position to promote them.
There are black markets for these kind of issues, however they typically provide decrease costs, which might make the thefts not value it within the first place.
