Problem: You can only charge your car in a garage?!

[vfx]

Cables should be carried in the cars. There will be malicious vandalism that will hurt the charger station networks. The cable is the easiest target. Here in CA we have chargers from the first round of EVs and their cables are routinely destroyed and the connectors smashed or run over. I can take pictures of them.

In the old days when there were pay phones (in booths) the cables were steal jacketed and still ripped out by uncaring hooligans. You could simply walk down the street to find another public phone but in a car it's a much bigger deal and you might reeeeealy need that charge.

Copper is expensive. Scrap prices on a cable is worth one heck of a lot of aluminum cans!

Conspiracy alert!

Those who hate EVs can hire vandals to wreck charge stations. On person could do a lot of damage in one night. The press could be alerted and take the side of "this won't work".
I'll let you write in the nefarious names here.

 

[AndrewBissell]

This coincides with the Mennekes proposal in which the user carries the cable. Plugging in to a compatible EVSE and the car causes locking pins to be engaged at each end.

Note that the cable can be assymetric - Mennekes at EVSE end, J1772 at car end (if your car is of that persuasion).

 

[eledille]

Cables should be carried in the cars. There will be malicious vandalism that will hurt the charger station networks. The cable is the easiest target.

That's my prediction too. There are always people who will vandalize just for fun. When money can be made by stealing the cables, thieves and vandals will be competing against each other.

Copper is expensive. Scrap prices on a cable is worth one heck of a lot of aluminum cans!

And I'd be very surprised if this coming electric revolution doesn't send the price of copper soaring to new highs.

If the cable is carried in the car, it will only be accessible to thieves and vandals while connected to both the charging station and the car. It would be easy to detect that it's being cut, wires will be shorted. That might trigger the car alarm, alert the owner of the charging station and send off an SMS to the owner of the car. I think that would make cable theft more trouble than it's worth.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Cables should be carried in the cars.

625-13. Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment. Electric vehicle
supply equipment rated at 125 volt, single phase, 15
or 20 amperes or part of a system identified and listed as
suitable for the purpose and meeting the requirements of
Sections 625-18. 625-19. and 625-29 shall be permitted to
be cord and plug connected. All other electric vehicle supply
equipment shall be permanently connected and fastened in
place. This equipment shall have no exposed live parts.

NEC 625 makes it so for any EVSE above single phase 125V, everything needs to be permanently connected. So I guess that means either a permanent cord in the vehicle end or a permanent cord on the charger end.

Personally I think NEC 625 needs to be revised to make it possible to use EVSE with the capability of a separate cable. There's enough safety mechanisms already in the spec (interlocking + automatic de-energization + overcurrent protection + interrupt protection against electrocution) that make it so it shouldn't be a safety issue.

There's also a question mark as to whether 220V mobile charging cables are compliant with NEC 625. I guess it isn't enforced, but from previous discussions, if your house catches on fire because of such a cable, the insurance company may say you violated the electrical code, specifically 625-13, even though your 220V cable may be compliant with all the other sections.

 

[eledille]

NEC 625 makes it so for any EVSE above single phase 125V, everything needs to be permanently connected.

"or part of a system identified and listed as
suitable for the purpose and meeting the requirements of
Sections 625-18. 625-19. and 625-29 shall be permitted to
be cord and plug connected."

As far as I can see, this part means that systems identified and listed as suitable for the purpose and meeting the various safety requirements can be cord and plug connected, even if more powerful than 125V, 20A.

 

[stopcrazypp]

"or part of a system identified and listed as
suitable for the purpose and meeting the requirements of
Sections 625-18. 625-19. and 625-29 shall be permitted to
be cord and plug connected."

As far as I can see, this part means that systems identified and listed as suitable for the purpose and meeting the various safety requirements can be cord and plug connected, even if more powerful than 125V, 20A.

I see, I didn't read it carefully enough. 18 & 19 is interlocking and automatic de-energization. 29 is indoor areas.

So the permanent connection rule only applies to outdoor areas like driveways, curb parking or open parking structures. But that is still a significant amount of the charger market and where you are most worried about theft or vandalism as relevant to this thread.

 

[Brent]

There must be some good ideas floating around the head of some smart engineer out there:

1) Design charge stations to interface better with the car, such that the cable can be kept short, on the order of 30 cm or less.

2) Create some kind of extending arm, with rubber seal, that creates a secure channel from the station to the car.

And short of engineering solutions, one might privatize charge stations, so that people can make money off of them and be interested in maintaining the infrastructure.

 

[richkae]

A 20 foot cable that can carry 40amps at 240V has about 3 pounds of copper worth about $10
I really dont think its that big of an issue, but if it is then include a loop of super tiny #26 wire that is an alarm circuit in the cable.
If the wire is cut the alarm goes off and a $5 digital camera circuit takes a bunch of pictures of you cutting the wire.

I'm more worried about some inbred electrophobe petrolhead keying my car.

 

[vfx]

Approximately 90 aluminum cans is 3 pounds. About $2.00 in scrap. Five times less return and one-stop (dumsterless) shopping.

I would also make the fine for tampering with EV charge stations in the thousands like some litter laws in national parks.

 

[eledille]

So the permanent connection rule only applies to outdoor areas like driveways, curb parking or open parking structures.

I would have thought that the indoor area safety restrictions only apply to indoor areas, but I don't know, I'm not familiar with US electrical regulations.

I think the purpose of paragraph 29 is to prevent explosions - charging lead acid and nickel cadmium batteries generate an extremely dangerous hydrogen/oxygen gas mixture.

Vandalism will be impossible to completely prevent - even if the cable is carried in the car and video surveillance is installed, a malicious individual might simply pull his hood over his head, stuff his chewing gum into the socket and walk away.

But it must be impossible to generate a profit from destroying charging stations. Carrying the cable in the car would prevent theft and vandalism while the cable is not energized. I don't think people would use their knife to vandalize an energized cable, the electric arc would ruin it and send molten metal flying. Locking the connectors in place while charging means that they can't get the plugs and have to cut the cable twice. Professional thieves would probably select a more profitable target if the fine was high and alarms and alerts were triggered as soon as they cut the cable.