“SOMEONE WILL STEAL MY EV’S CHARGE CABLE WHEN PLUGGED IN”

Even though I’ve done it hundreds of times, I’ve got to admit an electric car charging in the street does look a bit, well, vulnerable. Poking out at 90 degrees from the bodywork is a fairly sizeable and awkward plug, feeding into a thick cable crossing the pavement or gutter, and terminating in another plug that pokes out of the socket in the charging post.

Won’t the neighbourhood urchins come along and unplug it? Won’t some other EV driver disconnect your umbilical so they can use the charge post? Won’t the local crims, fresh from nicking the lead off the parish church roof and the cats from under the neighbourhood Uber Priuses, steal your cable, possibly by cutting it, for the scrap value of the metals it contains?

Well, the first disincentive to such nefarious behaviours is that said cable delivers 32A at mains voltage. While the whole charge system carries several safety and earth-protection devices so it’s extremely unlikely to deliver a shock, I can’t see anyone being willing to do an actual live test.

Second, the car communicates with the charge post, and at both ends part of the plug/socket design is an automatic locking pin. In most cars, it stays locked until you double-press the unlock button on the key. If yours is one of the rare ones that doesn’t, just get a wheel chock with a channel on top that’s the same gauge as the cable. Slot in the cable then drive over the chock.

And if you have a home charge wallbox, don’t leave the cable loose in the garden when you’re not charging. Lock it away or put it in the boot.