Soaring copper prices fuel wave of vandalism against EV chargers, stranding drivers
By isabelle // 2025-10-13
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  • Copper thieves are disabling the UK's electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
  • Each attack costs tens of thousands of pounds to repair for minimal scrap value.
  • This criminal epidemic has left a significant portion of public chargers inoperative.
  • The thefts are driven by record-high global copper prices.
  • The crisis threatens the viability of the government's forced transition to EVs.
A quiet crisis is unfolding across Britain, and it is threatening to derail the government's forced transition to electric vehicles. A rampant wave of thefts, driven by soaring global copper prices, is systematically disabling the nation's electric vehicle charging infrastructure, leaving drivers stranded and questioning the viability of the eco-friendly mandate. This criminal epidemic, largely ignored by the mainstream media, exposes a critical vulnerability in the state-sponsored push for EVs, revealing a plan built on a fragile foundation now being literally severed by thieves with shears. The scale of the problem is staggering. James Moat, the Chief Executive of charging company Evyve, provided a stark assessment of the damage. Of Evyve’s 300 chargers, around 100 have been hit in the last 12 months, in some cases repeatedly. Each replacement costs him around £30,000, plus thousands of pounds extra in security measures. Moat described the situation as a national problem that has ramped up at scale, noting there doesn't seem to be any deterrent to stop an individual from doing it. The root cause is simple economics. The metal, widely used in electric cables, last week climbed to $11,000 (£8,200) a tonne, up from around $7,500 three years ago. Although each cable only has around £30 worth of copper, bays of six or more chargers mean it can add up. This lucrative black market has turned public charging stations into irresistible targets for criminals.

National infrastructure under siege

The impact on the charging network's functionality is severe. At a peak this summer, Osprey, one of the largest UK charging networks, estimates that one in 10 of the UK’s 17,000 rapid and ultra-rapid chargers were out of action due to cable thefts. InstaVolt, Britain’s biggest rapid charging network, says that 990 cables have been stolen since 2023, the majority of them this year. This mass disablement creates a frustrating reality for EV owners who cannot rely on the public network for essential power. The brazen nature of these crimes is being captured in security footage from across the country. In one example of recent footage, a man in a black hoodie and shorts emerged from the trees near a roadside pub in Chelmsford, Essex, brandishing a pair of garden shears. One by one, he cut the cables attached to four electric car charging stations before disappearing back into the darkness. A few minutes later, a black Ford Mustang Mach E pulled up to the chargers. CCTV footage shows the same man getting out of the car, grabbing the charging cable as if to plug in, before quickly bundling it into his boot. In another incident in Wednesbury, dramatic footage shows a thug brazenly hacking away at the cables before dragging them out of sight of the camera. At one point, while sawing away, the man looks up to discover he is being filmed by a CCTV camera above his head, leaving a concerned expression on his uncovered face. He continuously looks around him to check no one is watching his criminality, but wore nothing but a baseball cap to conceal his identity.

A global problem with local pain

This is not a problem confined to the United Kingdom. Reports from Denver, Colorado, reveal a similar pattern of destructive theft. Thieves stole copper cabling from all three EV chargers stationed at Denver’s Scheitler Recreation Center, rendering them unusable for up to two months. The agency said that the stolen copper would only net a paltry $20 per cable, and cutting an active cable could be potentially lethal. But replacing the chargers at the Northwest Denver recreation center could cost the city up to $50,000 in total. The financial math of this vandalism is absurd, creating massive public and private costs for minimal criminal gain. The cables will cost thousands for companies to replace, even though they are only worth around £15 as scrap. This disparity highlights the senseless destruction underpinning the thefts, where the pursuit of a small amount of raw material inflicts disproportionate damage on critical infrastructure. Companies are scrambling for solutions, but every measure adds to the final cost passed on to consumers. All sorts of initiatives are being tried, including GPS trackers attached to the cables and armoured sheathing, but they all ratchet up the costs, to say nothing of the hapless EV driver who turns up to find a collection of impotent amputated chargers. One company, ChargePoint, said it was working to combat vandalism nationwide by introducing cut-resistant cables and better alarm systems. These thefts threaten to further slow the sale of EVs, which are already vulnerable to higher purchase costs and questions about battery life. With the government's plan to end sales of new gas and diesel cars by 2030, this copper cable crisis reveals a deeply flawed transition, one where the infrastructure cannot even survive basic criminal predation, let alone support a nation's transportation needs. Sources for this article include: DailySceptic.org Denverite.com DailyMail.co.uk
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