It’s a common question we are often asked and so, here in this Chargebase article, we’ll cover this EV issue and give our view on this matter.
Home EV charging points are becoming increasingly popular but they do present a potential security issue for owners. Almost none of the home charging points on the market have any level of security to stop people stealing electricity. It is entirely possible to drive up, connect and start charging. And ‘Hey Presto!’ (whatever that means), it’s a free charge.
Can you imagine what would happen if the same situation were to occur with petrol or diesel? There’s been huge levels of theft and a lot of very unhappy homeowners.
But, whilst in principle, it is the same, in practice it is very different. How? Well, the difference is two-fold.
Firstly, there’s the cost factor. Filling a car with petrol or diesel could have a value of anything from £50 to £100 or more. However, the cost of ‘filling’ an electric car with electricity is likely to be no more than a few pounds, certainly less than the cost of a couple of pints at your local pub. For someone to be desperate and sneaky enough to want to steal a charge from you they would have needed to have bought an entire car, to begin with. The chances of them being unable to pay a few pounds for a charge are small.
Secondly, and this is the real ‘deal breaker’ for stealing an EV charge: It can take hours to fully charge an EV. To steal a charge would mean driving to your home and ‘sneaking’ an entire car onto your driveway, parking it up. And then hoping no-one looks out of the window, comes home or see’s you sitting there connected to your supply!
The perpetrator would also have to either leave their car in your drive or sit in it. And even if that did happen, a quick getaway is unlikely without getting out of the car to disconnect it or driving off, pulling the connection out and potentially causing hundreds of pounds of damage to the car.
So, whilst it is entirely possible to steal an EV charge from a home charger, the likelihood of this happening is remote, to say the least.
At this point, we have not heard of anyone having their EV charge stolen from their own home and it is our view that this is likely to be a rare issue because of the reasons we have given above. UPDATE! Tesla owner in the USA steals a charge.
Still, want to secure your supply? Ok, if you’re not convinced and want to be 100% sure then the best solution is a switch inside your home for your charger supply. You can then simply switch your electric car charger off when not in use. Call us today and we can arrange for this for your new Chargebase charger on 0333 012 4512.
If you would like to speak to a friendly and helpful member of our team, ask questions, discuss your EV charger options or would like help with anything related all you have to do is call us on the number below.