Copper set fresh records on COMEX in late summer 2026, with the front-month contract passing $6.70 a pound in August and trading around $6.85 in September, then easing to roughly $6.60 in early October. That is well above the record the metal set back in 2024. A charging cable hangs a stretch of that copper at waist height in a lot that's often unattended after dark, which is exactly why theft kept climbing instead of leveling off once prices set that first 2024 record. Hydro-Québec, which runs the province's largest charging network, reportedly saw copper thefts against its charging equipment more than double in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period of 2025. Edmonton police reportedly attributed roughly $41,590 in damage to copper-wire thefts from charging stations between January and July 2026. Both figures come from secondary 2026 reporting that this site could not trace to Hydro-Québec or police statements directly.
That specific incident data comes out of Canada, where reporting on 2026 numbers has been more current than what U.S. networks have published this year. But the underlying driver, the copper price, is the same commodity market on both sides of the border, and the U.S. networks were already showing the same trajectory before prices climbed further. Electrify America, one of the country's largest DC fast charging networks, told reporters in 2024 that cable cuts had gone from roughly once every six months a couple of years earlier to 129 incidents by May of that year, already ahead of its full-year 2023 total. This site's own commercial insurance article covers that same 2024 baseline. What's changed since is the price of the metal driving it, not the underlying incentive.
If your property hosts charging today, or you're planning a site, the practical question isn't whether this is a real risk. It plainly is. It's what actually reduces it, at what cost, and what to do about the loss that gets through anyway.
Why a $15 cable draws a $2,000 bill
The economics of this crime are lopsided in a way that matters for prevention strategy. A scrapyard pays a thief maybe $15 to $20 per cable (police in Houston and Seattle sources put it near that), well below the metal's raw spot value, because unstripped, insulated wire pays out at a discount. A heavier-gauge DC fast charging cable carries more copper and would fetch more at scrap weight, but it's still a small fraction of what it costs the site to replace: often $2,000 or more, with reports ranging up to about $5,000, given the heavier conductor and the more complex connector assembly. This site's companion insurance article cites a lower figure, around $1,000, from a municipal public-works source describing a general utility cable replacement rather than a DC fast charging assembly specifically; the two aren't in conflict so much as pricing different equipment, and either way the replacement cost dwarfs the scrap value. On a Level 2 charger the cable itself is cheaper to replace than a DCFC one, but you still lose the port to downtime and, on a paid site, lost session revenue while a technician is scheduled.
That gap is worth understanding because it points at what actually works. A charging cable's power conductors aren't energized while it's sitting idle between sessions, a vehicle has to complete a handshake before the contactor closes, so the electrocution risk a thief actually faces is lower than it might sound. Even so, FLO has argued in its own security guidance that the payout is thin enough relative to the effort and risk involved that a thief weighing a few dollars of scrap doesn't need a vault-grade deterrent to be talked out of it. Visible friction, something that makes the theft take longer, look riskier, or trigger an alarm before the cut is finished, changes that math more than raw physical hardening alone.
Layer 1: cable construction that resists cutting
The most direct fix is a cable a bolt cutter can't get through quickly. ChargePoint introduced a cut-resistant charging cable alongside its alarm system, built with steel-reinforced sheathing designed to resist bolt cutters, wire cutters, and battery-powered cutting tools. Other manufacturers offer comparable armored or braided-steel cable options; ask specifically about cut-resistance testing and cutting-tool types tested against, not just a marketing claim of "reinforced," when you evaluate a vendor.
A cut-resistant cable doesn't make theft impossible, an angle grinder or a determined thief with enough time still gets through most things, but it removes the easy targets. Combined with a shorter cable run where site layout allows it, less exposed length means less to cut and less copper to make the attempt worth the risk.
Layer 2: tamper alarms and remote detection
Hardening the cable only helps until someone shows up with better tools. The layer that catches the attempt in progress is a tamper-detection system. ChargePoint Protect, available since January 2025 as a cloud software upgrade on select charger models, detects cable tampering or cutting in real time and triggers an alarm using the charger's own speakers, screen, and lighting, while sending an SMS or email alert to the site owner. For existing ChargePoint customers on eligible hardware, it activates through software rather than a separate purchase.
Retrofit options exist for chargers that don't have that built in. Evolt, a UK charging operator, introduced a cable alarm in January 2025 (made by Circontrol) that it says can be added to its existing DC chargers in about an hour and triggers an audible alarm and flashing beacon the moment it detects a cable being cut or forcibly removed. The pitch for either approach is the same: turn a quiet, unsupervised act into a loud, witnessed one, which is often enough on its own given how little the copper is actually worth to the person doing the cutting.
Layer 3: cable-free charging models
A newer approach removes the standing target entirely by not leaving a cable at the charger at all. Brooklyn-based curbside charging provider It's Electric has been described as using a detachable-cable design, in which drivers bring their own cable so the unit has no permanently attached cable for anyone to cut. This site could not confirm the details of that model against the company's own materials, so verify it directly. It is a curbside-charging product built around city sidewalk deployments, not a drop-in retrofit for an existing commercial lot, and it's a newer approach without the track record of ChargePoint's or Evolt's hardware. It's most relevant if you're evaluating a new curbside or public-access install in a high-exposure location, rather than something to bolt onto a site you've already built.
Layer 4: site design still does real work
None of the hardware above replaces basic site design. A charging bank in a well-lit area with a clear sightline from an occupied building, or covered by a camera aimed at the stalls rather than the parking lot in general, is a harder target than one tucked against a back fence after dark. This site's guide to site selection fundamentals covers the broader property-layout factors worth weighing before conduit goes in the ground; lighting and camera coverage over the charger bank specifically belongs on that checklist alongside ADA access and utility proximity, not treated as an afterthought once the equipment is already installed.
Get the insurance line right before you need it
Cable theft is a loss, and losses need a policy that actually responds to them. As this site's commercial EV charging insurance guide lays out in detail, there's no standardized "cable theft rider" product on the market as of 2026. What you need instead is confirmation that your scheduled equipment is covered for theft and vandalism under your property policy, and, if charging is a revenue line for your site, that business interruption coverage responds to the downtime while a stolen cable gets replaced. Repeated claims can also affect your renewal terms, which is one more reason the prevention layers above are worth the upfront cost: fewer claims keeps the coverage itself affordable.
Ask your broker directly whether your policy covers a cut cable as theft, as vandalism, or not at all under the current form, and get the answer in writing before you need it, not while you're filing a claim.
What this actually costs to prevent
Most of the prevention hardware above is priced by vendor quote rather than a public list price, the same caveat that applies to warranty and network-fee pricing across this site's other operating-cost articles, so treat the following as a decision framework rather than a fixed budget:
- If you already run ChargePoint hardware on an eligible model, Protect activates through a software update at no additional cost, making it close to a free first move.
- A retrofit alarm of the kind Evolt offers is described as a roughly one-hour install on compatible chargers, a reasonable low-cost first step for an existing site that has no tamper detection at all. Confirm compatibility with your hardware.
- Cut-resistant cable is available as a retrofit on ChargePoint commercial and fleet stations, per ChargePoint's announcement, and is otherwise a hardware choice at purchase or replacement time. Ask your vendor for a quote.
- A cable-free (BYOC) model is a bigger operational commitment tied to how you deploy new curbside or public sites, not something you retrofit onto an existing lot.
- Insurance review costs nothing but a conversation with your broker and is the one step that has no reason to wait.
Compare any of that against the $2,000-plus replacement cost of a single cut DC fast charging cable, plus the lost session revenue and the reputational cost of a charger that's down when a driver needs it, and the math for at least the free and low-cost layers isn't close.
Common mistakes to avoid
Assuming a newer site is a safer site. Thieves have hit stations in Seattle, Las Vegas, and across California, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Geographic spread, not novelty, is the pattern.
Treating this as purely a DC fast charging problem. Level 2 cables get cut too. They're cheaper to replace individually, but a multi-port Level 2 site with no deterrents at all is still an easy target, just a lower-dollar one per incident.
Buying hardware before checking what your existing platform already includes. If you're already on a network with tamper-alert software available, confirm whether it's active on your specific hardware tier before you shop for a bolt-on alternative.
Assuming your property policy already covers it. As the companion insurance article details, that assumption is the single most common gap property owners discover only after a loss.
The trend line here points one direction as long as copper stays this expensive. Layer the defenses that fit your site and your budget now, and confirm the policy that backstops what gets through anyway.
Sources
- CBC News, reporting on Canadian EV charger copper theft trends including Hydro-Québec and Edmonton Police Service figures (August 2026)
- Fortune, reporting on Electrify America cable-theft data (June 2024)
- ChargePoint, announcement of cut-resistant cable and ChargePoint Protect (alarm software rolling out from January 2025)
- FLO, insights commentary on charging cable theft economics
- Reporting on retrofit and cable-free deterrent products, including Evolt and It's Electric
- Mining and commodity trade coverage of the 2026 COMEX copper records (August to October 2026)
Last factually verified: October 19, 2026, against web-indexed coverage of the sources named here; direct access to several primary sites was blocked, so each item is marked by how it was confirmed. COMEX copper records (August to early October 2026) were checked against commodity trade reports (Mining Reporters, August 26, 2026, and others), not CME data directly. The Hydro-Québec and Edmonton figures appear in a single secondary 2026 report and are worded as reported; the earlier incident counts (nine versus 20) could not be re-confirmed and were removed. Electrify America's 129 cable cuts by May 2024 is from the June 2024 Associated Press story as republished by multiple outlets; an earlier "215 in 2024 versus 79 in 2023" figure could not be re-confirmed and was removed. ChargePoint's cut-resistant cable and Protect alarm were checked against several trade write-ups of its announcement, not chargepoint.com. Evolt's alarm was checked against electrive.com (January 20, 2025) and other trade coverage. Scrap value ($15 to $20 per cable) and replacement cost ($2,000 or more, up to about $5,000) were checked against news reports quoting Houston police, Seattle City Light, and a September 2026 Australian report, not a single primary source. The It's Electric bring-your-own-cable detail could not be confirmed and is hedged. No standardized dollar figure exists for U.S. cable-theft incidents specific to 2026; the 2024 Electrify America figure is the most recent verified U.S. network data and is dated.
evcharginghelp.com is editorially independent and receives no compensation from any company mentioned.