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Comment by kazinator | Hacker News Reader

It's literally "going out of style".

Gotta get all the cat converters you can before all the cars are electric!

I'd expect the charging cables to be the easy target then. EV owners, please correct me if I'm wrong but I can't imagine that the charging port would be able resist a cordless drill for more then 4 or 5 seconds. And from what I've seen of the CCS connectors, Home Depot probably carries big drill bits long enough drill into into and completely destroy the locking mechanism.

Drill in, destroy the the charging port on the car, retrieve the cable and sell on Ebay. How much do one of those charging cables go? $200? If not, and if the owner does something to lock the cable, cutting it for the copper is still worth a few dollars.

This is already a thing in terms of Tesla superchargers being sawed off to be sold for scrap. Copper is pretty valuable.

https://electrek.co/2022/02/07/tesla-supercharger-cables-sto...

I wonder if this is part of the reason the new superchargers have liquid cooled cables. Less copper. Also, supercharger cables are way shorter than any other charger.

I guess they can do that because all the cars have the charge port in the same spot.

> And from what I've seen of the CCS connectors, Home Depot probably carries big drill bits long enough drill into into and completely destroy the locking mechanism.

> If not, and if the owner does something to lock the cable, cutting it for the copper is still worth a few dollars.

Worth the risk of electrocution with a possibly live 50-350kW flowing through a CCS charger cable? Seems like a different level of risk than a catalytic converter.

I commented to the other fellow, but long story short; wasn't thinking about the high voltage fast charging lines, but rather little level 1 chargers people would use to charge cars parked on the street over night. Intact, they're worth a fair amount and at least first glance there doesn't seem to be a lot of risk involved if done properly.

Why would you go for one that's plugged in to a car? There are plenty of unoccupied ones around and they don't have 800 volts running through them.

Wasn't really thinking about the high voltage fast chargers; you can just cut those straight off the super charging station without a car there. I was thinking more along the lines of those little Level 1 CCS chargers that someone would use to charge a parked car on the street overnight.

And aim here is to retrieve the charging cable intact. If you do it right the drill bit shouldn't be getting anywhere close to the energized lines. Just an example, check this data sheet for an EV inlet port: https://www.phoenixcontact.com/us/products/1162148/pdf

The locking mechanism is located to the side. You don't need to remove the locking pin as it's recessed in the charging handle itself, you just need to destroy the mechanism behind the pin so that there's enough void there for you to jostle the pin out and free the connector.

In theory it should actually be quite safe for a thief.

there are "easier" ways to steal copper

Batteries will get stolen for same reason.

I doubt it. Catalytic converters are stolen because they're valuable and easy to make off with. Car batteries are frickin giant, and if you try and take only a piece you get a giant fire instead of a valuable source of rare metals. They don't seem like a great thing to steal.

You are really discounting the ingenuity of criminals. If they can steal 4 tires with wheel locks off your car, they can steal your undercarriage battery.

It’s THOUSANDS of pounds. It’s not a trivial operation.

It may happen, but it will never be anywhere near as common as cat theft.

One is safe, trivial, fast, and pays a lot. The other is extremely difficult, possibly lethal, and can’t easily be melted down for profit like a cat.

As connected as modern EV cars are, stealing one would seem like a dumb decision since they'll know exactly where the car is. I know chop shops are quick, but I still wouldn't want to knowingly bring something with tracking devices into my criminal lair.

They'll figure out how to cut or disable the antenna and/or transmitter pretty quickly.

Load it up onto a container truck and you got yourself a nice Faraday cage to block the trackers.

Really? I'm pretty sure I have the tools in my garage to steal 4 wheels with locking nuts. I'm absolutely certain I couldn't steal the battery in my EV without stealing the whole EV. Which has a GPS tracker built into it.

Faraday cages and transport trucks. The next EV theft wave.

EV batteries are becoming STRUCTURAL, meaning they make up the core vehicle shell of the car, use hardened steel reinforcement and weight 1-2K pounds. They're also super dangerous if punctured. It would be easier to steal the whole vehicle than to steal the battery alone.

I'd go so far as to say that an EV is a glorified "battery with wheels" since the actual drive components are a minority of the weight/complexity/cost. If a criminal can steal the whole EV, they will, if they cannot then stealing the battery alone isn't realistic.

Non-removable batteries, wow.

I worry that a parallel development might happen in smartphones.

Agreed. It’s thirty seconds with a battery powered reciprocating saw to remove a cat which is also light enough to be carried by one person. There’s no way EV batteries could be accessed and transported away so quickly.

I'm pretty sure the organized rings salvage the ceramic out of cats and then ship that overseas via backhauled shipping containers.

A new incentive to steal cars then. Steal car, harvest battery cells worth $20k+, ditch the rest of the car. No silly VIN numbers, etc. Just anonymous 18650 cells (or whatever they use now).

I was under the impression most car thefts were already to chop them up for parts anyway so this doesn't seem like a new incentive.

Wait till the stories come out about criminals discovery what an extremely low impedance source of 700V does to your body.

I think e-bikes are already easy prey in large cities.

A tesla model 3 battery weighs over 1000lbs

They are able to lift whole car in a daylight to steal a catalytic converter. 500kg battery is nothing.

Let's say you get the battery out by unbolting it in a short amount of time. You'd have to let it drop onto something to then remove it from the car. In one video a person used 2x4s then pulled it out with another vehicle.

Now what? How do you get it into another vehicle to transport? There's no place for a small crane to attach to. You would need some sort of hydraulic lift that would be similar to a pallet jack. Once it's up you then need to move it onto the truck which would be difficult. Maybe you can drag it on the back of a truck using a pickup bed mounted winch.

Finally what do you do with it? It's nearly impossible to remove the individual cells, they are incased in some sort of protective foam that you have to chisel out. Sell the entire thing? Tesla will know the battery is stolen, car reads the serial number, bam, back to you.

Not to mention how large it is, how many could you do in one night?

More importantly why did you make your post? Do you have EVs so much that anytime even a slight advantage comes along you have to dispute it? Maybe you just like to argue. It's just really weird.

Nobody is jacking up a car to get to the cat. You just slide under with a $50 harbor freight sawzall and spend two minutes making two cuts.

Only when the thieves have robotic exoskeletons.

I’d be ok with a KYC law for the exoskeletons, if that becomes a problem

Or a simple jack lift, pallet trolley and few pulleys. Just like on manufacturing line, why it should be complicated?

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