Cable theft is widespread in several countries. It has particularly affected Tesla and the brand's own charging stations, but now Elon Musk and Co. are responding again to the thieves.
Tesla is responding to the increasing problem of damaged charging cables and theft by implementing various strategies.
Charging cables are in high demand due to their high copper content, which has led to an increase in thefts from charging stations.
The Associated Press writes that.
Tesla, which has one of the largest charging networks globally, is no exception to this problem. The company has implemented several initiatives to reduce the number of thefts and is testing various solutions.
One of these methods is to cover the charging cables with a metal mesh, which makes it more difficult to cut them.
In addition, the same charging cables are treated with a layer of pressurized ink. If someone tries to cut the charging cables, they will be sprayed with blue ink, which is expected to be difficult to remove.
The head of Tesla's Supercharger network, Max de Zegher, is also pretty fed up with cable theft. But the ink experiment is just one of the things Tesla is trying out.
– It's just something we're testing. The cables are also engraved with the text 'Property of Tesla', so recycling companies understand that they shouldn't accept them and instead let us know.
– This is a scalable and cost-effective solution that does not affect either operations or the customer experience, writes de Zegher on the social media X.
The problem of theft of copper cables is not new. Several Norwegian companies have experienced this in recent years.
According to NRK, 20 thefts or attempted thefts were reported last year alone. With a copper price of 51 Danish kroner per kilo in 2024, there is a lot of money to be made from the metal.
The Norwegian media reports that it is particularly in eastern Norway that the charging cables and the copper in them are disappearing. NRK writes that at least 200,000 Norwegian kroner worth of copper has been stolen.
That's a little less than 130,000 Danish kroner.
Charging stations in Denmark have also been subjected to vandalism.
Boosted has repeatedly written about how charging parks around the country have been hit by this form of vandalism. Read more about it here .
