Oakland has been dealing with an increase of thick cables being sliced and stolen at various charging station points, hampering Electronic Vehicle drivers.
The City of Oakland, California, has been grappling with a rise in incidents involving the deliberate severing and theft of robust cables at multiple charging station locations.
According to reports, this has rendered a considerable number of them without power and effectively hindered their ability to travel and operate their vehicles as intended.
Approximately 12 charging cables have been reported as missing from the EVgo charging station located at 409 Washington Street near Jack London Square. These chargers have been inoperative for a minimum duration of one week.
It has been ascertained that the charging cables and associated components were stolen, resulting in the exposed wires near the upper portion of the charging units being subsequently covered with black electrical tape.
According to reported information, the Oakland Police Department has confirmed the absence of any incident reports pertaining to vandalism at one of the sites; however, local residents assert that they did inform the local police about the situation.
There are suspicions among certain drivers that the motivation behind these acts could be the presence of valuable metals within the cables.
Similar incidents across the country have been documented, with thieves specifically targeting the copper content of EV charging cables.
Additionally, it was observed that the wiring of surveillance video cameras at the charging station itself showed signs of tampering.
Reports say EV owners in the Bay Area have voiced complaints regarding the insufficient availability of charging stations and issues with malfunctioning chargers and problematic payment systems.
It has been highlighted by a reliable source that although the state of California has managed to maintain a proportional growth of charging stations in alignment with the sales of electric vehicles, there persist challenges related to the overall customer experience in this regard.
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