As electric vehicles have grown in popularity, so too has the infuriating trend of drivers pulling aside to charge their EVs and discovering that the stations have suffered vandalism.
The practice isn't confined to the United States, either, which has seen around one-fifth of its chargers destroyed at one point or another, according to data from the Electric Vehicle Charging Association cited by NACS Magazine.
One individual in Germany took to Reddit to share their disappointing experience in Stuttgart.
"People are deliberately destroying EV charging stations. Why?" the Redditor wrote in the r/stuttgart community, posting an image of the out-of-service station.
Commenters had plenty to say about the situation. While some were unsure it was intentional vandalism, others lamented what seemed to be a clear-cut case of purposeful destruction.
"That's why we can't have nice things!" one person vented.
"Why? Because they can," another said.
Others speculated that the vandals were after the valuable copper cables, while some believed anti-EV sentiment was to blame. One common myth about EVs is that they account for more environmental pollution over their lifetimes than gas-powered vehicles.
However, even though mining for EV battery components creates waste and contributes to water contamination, it is still much less polluting than digging up dirty fuels, let alone burning them to power our vehicles.
And even when accounting for electricity used for charging, EVs are still typically responsible for much less pollution, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This is because they don't release heat-trapping gases from their tailpipes, whereas a gas-powered passenger car generates around 10,000 pounds of carbon pollution every year.
Considering that EVs are generally less expensive to own, saving their drivers an estimated $1,500 annually on gas and maintenance, it is easy to understand why more and more people have been switching to clean energy vehicles.
One often-cited hurdle to EV adoption is the upfront cost, as shown in a survey by S&P Global Mobility. Yet some countries — including the U.S. — have approved incentives that make the vehicles more affordable (and manufacturers like Tesla have offered discounts at times).
Nonetheless, one commenter on the Reddit post revealed that the root of their frustration with EV charging spots was linked to this issue.
"EV owners even get a dedicated parking spot that no one else can park on, while they can still park anywhere they like," they wrote. "It's a form of a two-class system that upsets people. I still don't support vandalism, but I dislike the current system."
Another person thought the explanation for the apparent vandalism was much more straightforward, writing: "Cuz they hate innovation I guess."
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