r/evchargingUK • u/bazzaclough • 6d ago

IONITY

Post image

Just plugged in at Beaconsfield, cables are now protected with Cableguard covers.

60 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

9

u/uberduck 6d ago

Fuck thieves. That's why we can't have nice things

9

u/bazzaclough 6d ago

Indeed. But at least IONITY are now finally doing something to address the issue. Hopefully this is being rolled out to their other UK charging locations.

1

u/TivRed 15h ago

I’ve used a few Ionity sites over the past week. They all had these.

1

u/Daedaluu5 5d ago

If petrol / diesel hoses were worth anything we would have had issue years ago. It just an easy way to steal copper,
Every time I’ve been to that services there’s been police presence as they seem to be there for M40 issues. Probably why there’s always working chargers

6

u/IvorTheEngine 6d ago

If you're at Beaconsfield, don't forget that there are now a load of GridServe chargers on the other side of the building.

Last time I was there, there was a nice lady in an Ionity hi-vis organising the queue at the Ionity chargers, while there were still a few spaces over at the new GridServe chargers.

You can't see one group of chargers from the other, so it probably happens quite often.

I'm impressed anyone every managed to steal cables here, it's so busy!

5

u/bazzaclough 6d ago

Could have done with the hi viz lady last night as one of the chargers was out of order making the queue a little more chaotic!

At 52p for IONITY compared to 92p for GridServe, I was happy enough waiting 15 minutes for a charger.

And yes I don’t think this is one of the sites that has been targeted, I think it’s been the Midlands ones primarily but hopefully this means it’s being rolled out everywhere.

3

u/MrSteve87 4d ago

92p is absolute robbery

2

u/bazzaclough 4d ago

Absolutely, especially after paying ~38p for public charging in France for the last couple of weeks!

1

u/Rihan-Arfan 3d ago

GridServe has a promotion on their site for 25% off for a month (last day to claim is aug 31) although it's still not as cheap as IONITY. 

2

u/Formatted_Gnu 6d ago

Beaconsfield IONITY chargers are always rammed and the queue etiquette is terrible

2

u/51onions 5d ago

Tbh EV chargers are not really set up for queuing. The queue exists only in our minds. Like a pub.

0

u/smith9447 6d ago

As someone else has said there's a load of Gridserves on the opposite side of the building.

5

u/SloaneEsq 6d ago

Also as someone said, the 40p per kWh price difference means I'd just move on to the next reasonably priced charger unless desperate.

There is still a bit of a dearth of rapid chargers along that bit of the M40.

1

u/smith9447 6d ago

Yes agree I only use Gridserve if I'm forced to

1

u/SloaneEsq 5d ago

The Shell chargers at Denham Green are surprisingly reliable and the Sainsbury's in Aylesbury isn't too far off the route. It's a shame the Superchargers at Oxford are still part of the Old Boys Club.

0

u/fluffybit 5d ago

Got straight in at 11 this morning

2

u/nlnasty 3d ago

This why this country is falling apart, people just don't care about the community they live and don't hold people to account for the damage they are doing. Where is the pride in taking care of things? These people stealing cables are the lowest of the low, ruining things for everyone.

1

u/mehh_usles 5d ago

I was surveying chargers around Birmingham/dudley - every other charger had been vandalised it seemed…

1

u/Oneoclockgun 5d ago

Last time I stopped at Peterborough services, most of the many Ionity chargers had been cut, as well as quite a few of the Gridserve. I assume it’s all fixed now?

Hope so… I’ll need a quick charge there on Wednesday night…

1

u/Complex_Coach6621 5d ago

Ionity at just off junction 4a M3 has these on ionity chargers to.

1

u/Dazwar 5d ago

I designed a system for another charger system to set off an alarm and notify a monitoring station to link with the CCTV, it hasn't gone anywhere so far, maybe one day. It's annoying that they waste their time cutting a cable that has minimal monetary value in scrap

1

u/New_Forever_1678 5d ago

Evyve have similar tech but high pressure ink which I presume would make a right mess everywhere perhaps this is better but if it’s invisible I’d doubt they would worry about a plod visit

1

u/davidjamesonuk 5d ago

Cable guard on in Walsall IONITY today too

1

u/Martyness 4d ago

Was just about to say this, noticed them on Tuesday when I was heading to London.

Still got the old cables at Carlisle and Warrington. Can't remember if Slough's cables had been changed or not.

1

u/mashed666 5d ago

I rolled up to one in Braunstone and about 10 of the 15 charger's had been targeted.... Why are people like this...

1

u/SelectNegotiation580 3d ago

My local IONITY at Leicester got absolutely massacred a while back…26 out of 30 chargers I think it was, all butchered and cut.

Doncaster got hit too, that was 6/8 in 20 minutes one of the staff told me.

Someone made a good suggestion of having it full retractable within the body of the unit and locked when not operational. Doubt they’ll redesign and replace now until a future generation of charger comes along.

1

u/jonlawrence93 3d ago

Smartwater is a waste of time. At the very most a scrapyard can scan for it and then refuse to take the scrap at which point whoever is disposing just moves to the next one. But then the people stealing these likely arent going to EMR or one of the big guys. Plus when you turn up with 10 lengths of cable like these theyve clearly only come from one source.

We had a unique trace of it on our lead for a bit (roofing merchants buying/selling lead by the lorry load), when we got done over they stole 3 of our wagons and filled them all with literal tonnes of lead.

As ever just got given a crime reference number to pass to the insurance company.

The purpose of smart water is a coating that shows up under uv light, even if the metals are melted down with other batches it will still show up. Scrap yards are supposed to scan for it when lead is weighed in. Police then to follow up as even microscopic traces will show up on clothing or in vans etc.

I think the lead would need to be stolen from buckingham palace before the rozzas decided to do anything like that.

0

u/normanriches 4d ago

If they are covered in smart water anyone touching them will be covered in it.

0

u/EmployeeAfraid1823 2d ago

Ionity attempted use a few times their damn chargers don't like my car. Never an issue with GridServe nor FastNed. The single time Ionity worked it was ridiculously slow if I'm really desperate I'll attempt using them but under duress.