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Vandalism prevalence @ public charging stations

Discussion in 'Prime Main Forum (2017-2022)' started by schja01, Jul 26, 2018.

  1. schja01

    schja01 One of very few in Chicagoland

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    I am fortunate enough to live in a very low crime area BUT ...
    I just can help but wonder how often Primes (or EVs in general) get vandalized while
    being charged unattended at public charging stations?
    That open charging port door could be very tempting to a passing prankster.
    ?
    J
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    going by this board, not very often. but i don't have any hard data.
     
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  3. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    The biggest risk is someone falling against the J1772. I've seen three cases where the connector latch lost its retention tooth. One was me trying to handle two dogs on leases, packages, and trying to plug-in at home in low light.

    Occam's razor: avoid attributing to malice what might be just clumsy.

    Bob Wilson
     
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  4. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    When I was a kid we had lots of vandalism in suburbia.
    They could not build a trolly stop without it getting burnt down.
    Seems like so much less a problem now.
     
  5. schja01

    schja01 One of very few in Chicagoland

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    I remember Trolleys. ;)
     
  6. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    From forum posts, I know of one Energi owner who had his personal EVSE stolen while "public" charging and also a couple of volt owners who had theirs vandalized outside their homes.

    I have previously stated (thinking out loud) about my concerns that bad guys would figure out that charging cars (and their owners) can be potential sitting ducks. Not so much the Tesla style multi-stall locations but rather the lonely 1-2 units in empty parking lots.
     
  7. ziggy29

    ziggy29 Member

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    Yeah, I don't think I'd ever use my own personal charging cable for public charging. It's not worth a dollar of "free" power to have a $700 part damaged or stolen -- or worse, have the entire charging port area damaged or broken in order to defeat the locking mechanism on the Prime. I'll burn gas before I do that.
     
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