Finding a charging station to power up your battery-electric vehicle used to be the biggest challenge to driving a BEV. Now, it may be finding a station that actually still has cables to connect to your vehicle.
Cable theft has gone from being what first seemed like a strange and frustrating prank into an organized crime racket and a transatlantic headache for operators in Europe, the U.S. and the U.K. From hacked chargers in Germany to sawed-off cables in Seattle and London, charging networks say the problem is taking on serious scale.
To fight back, charging companies are establishing smarter defenses and calling for tougher penalties to stop the spread of cable theft.
In Germany, one of the worst years yet for cable theft is unfolding, despite the low return on selling the copper in the cables.
EnBW, one of the country’s largest charging operators, says it has already recorded more than 900 cable thefts in 2025, across over 130 fast-charging sites.
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