EV charger security is a subject that will only grow and grow over the next few years – with more and more electric vehicles on the roads, and more people with home chargers, security of electric vehicle chargepoints could become an issue.
In this article I’ll look at Home EV charger security, what the security risks are and how you can improve the security of your home EV charger, cables and chargepoint.
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Table of Contents
EV Charger Security – 4 Security Risks
There’s four main ways thieves, criminals and general idiots could cause problems when it comes to your home EV charger security.
1. Stealing Your Electricity
There is nothing to stop anyone from driving up to your charge point and plugging in their own vehicle for a free charge.
We’re still very much in 1st generation stage of these home chargers, and there’s only a couple on the market at present time come with a key, pincode or app to allow you to switch off the power supply at the box.
For most electric vehicle chargepoints, you must go inside your house and turn off the power to the charge point at your consumer unit (RCD).
However, the likelihood of anyone attempting to steal your electricity by parking their car on your drive and plugging your charger into their car is minimal.
Of course, the biggest hurdle is time – standard home EV chargers can take anywhere between 5-10 hours to fully charge an EV battery, so it’s not like pulling up to a petrol forecourt and stealing £70 worth of petrol in a few seconds.
Worst case scenario: someone with extreme confidence parks on your drive, leaves their EV hooked up and steals a few pounds worth of electricity.
Without you noticing. And without anyone else noticing either.
Like I said. Extreme confidence.
2. Stealing Your Cable
It’s this one that you have to be most careful with.
If you have an untethered charge point at home (meaning you need to plug one end into your charge point and one into your car to charge it), then the risk of a thief targeting your cable is substantially higher than those who have tethered cables.
Tethered cables, of course, are permanently hardwired into your chargepoint box, so the wire would need to be cut with a sizeable pair of wire cutter shears.
But the risk of electrocution with 7.4 kilowatts of electricity is enough to deter most, funnily enough.
3. Stealing Your Charge Point
With charging points costing between £300-£1500, you’d think criminals would be interested in stealing what is essentially a box screwed to a wall, wouldn’t you?
Well, you would be wrong.
Because of course in most cases, the cable goes through a solid brick wall and feeds into your RCD Unit or consumer unit.
It’s simply too much trouble and hassle to steal one of these things, with the threat of electrocution a big deterrent.
4. Tampering & Criminal Damage
Seeing a vehicle hooked up and being charged is still a relatively novel thing, especially outside of residential properties.
For that reason, they become somewhat of an interest to some people – especially people who like to play practical jokes and think they can simply unhook the charger from your car so you don’t have enough charge to get to work the next morning!
Fortunately, as EV drivers, we know that a EV that has the charger connected whilst the doors are locked, cannot be removed.
But unfortunately, others don’t.
Trying to yank a charger from a car whilst locked isn’t impossible, and some brands of cars are easier to prise away than others.
However, with this amount of force and vibration, any car alarm worth its salt would trigger and potentially scare the prankster or deviant off in fear of being caught.
But, who knows what damage this could cause to your connector, charger and pins, and how much it would cost to put right.
EV Charger Security – Our Solutions
If you want extra peace of mind when it comes to the security of your home EV charger, then the best way is to implement security measures that act as deterrents.
Here’s 4 ways to improve your home EV charger security, starting with the cheapest and easiest method.
1. Add A Motion Sensor Light Over Your EV Chargepoint
No good in daylight of course.
But a well placed solar powered motion sensor light works wonders in hours of darkness, and would illuminate any criminal in glorious LED Lumen goodness – and hopefully spook them and make them go elsewhere.
They are cheap. They are easily installed and I personally own these and have them placed at various points around my property – including directly over my Pod Point charger.
Tip: Go for the 4 pack and install them around your property.
MOTION DETECTION RECOMMENDATIONS | |
2. Add A Fake CCTV Camera Near Your EV Chargepoint
CCTV is a great deterrent. Even if it is a fake and is nothing more than a piece of plastic.
Couple this excellent fake CCTV unit with some signage (below), and you’ll make anyone thinking of stealing or damaging your chargepoint or cabling, think twice.
DUMMY CCTV RECOMMENDATIONS | |
3. Add A CCTV System Near Your EV Chargepoint
A robust CCTV system, or home security system will give you huge peace of mind when it comes to EV Charger security – as well as home security in general.
I recommend a simple setup, with low costs and and a simple installation process – and wire free.
SIMPLE CCTV RECOMMENDATIONS | |
4. Add Signage Near Your EV Chargepoint
Signage is cheap and easy to install. Below is a selection of signs you could use as a deterrent- including an electrocution danger sign.
SIGNAGE RECOMMENDATIONS | |
Improving Security
By implementing some of the above, not only are you improving the security around your EV charger and chargepoint, you’re also improving the security of your vehicle and your property by layering security measures one on top of another.
If you’ve never really thought about home security in general, then now is the time to do it.
Below are a couple of articles related to home security that you might like.
75 Ways To Improve Home Security
25 Ways To Improve Garage Security
Questions & Comments
What are your thoughts on EV charger security? Have you made any adjustments to improve the security around your electric vehicle charger and chargepoint? If so, do share below and let me know what you think!
Stay Safe. Stay Secure.
