Supercharger Station Closes After All Charge Cables Get Cut

An entire set of Tesla Supercharger stalls sit unusable at a new station in Oakhurst, California, thanks to the disappearance of their cables. 

There is certainly no shortage of hate towards Tesla vehicles and their owners. In fact, there’s a lot of unneeded controversy around electric vehicles as a whole. Keeping that in mind, it’s easy to see how one might instantly assume the destruction of this California Tesla Supercharger station was purely spiteful. However, it seems there may be a better explanation.

In a recent thread on the Tesla Motors Club forum, users sounded off about why this brand new Supercharger station was showing as temporarily closed. The station is in Oakhurst, California, a small town southwest of Yosemite National Park. The addition of a Supercharger station in rural areas is always exciting, so seeing it marked closed despite appearing on the Tesla map system seemed odd to the TMC forum users. While some theorized that the station just may not be ready and Tesla employees jumped the gun on adding the map to the system, another user went out to the station to take a look.

What Looked like an Unfinished Supercharger Station from Afar Turned Out to Be a Bit Worse

From a distance, one would assume the lack of charging cables fits the theory that the station was incomplete. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. However, as can be seen above, one user took a closer look in person and found that every one of the cables had been cut off at their base.

With all the typical stereotypes surrounding arrogant Tesla owners (let’s face it, we’ve all seen the owners that are the source of them, too), there’s undoubtedly a certain level of hate for the brand. Of course, we’ve all seen the sentry videos of vandals taking aim at Teslas just for the fact that they are Teslas. So, it’s easy to immediately assume that these cables were cut just for the sport of making things difficult for Tesla owners. It seems, though, that this is not likely the case. Instead, there seems to be a financial motivation.

The Culprits Are Likely Thieves Looking for Scrap Metal

Indeed, the most likely scenario is that the culprits stole these cables for their copper content. Copper hit an all-time high value in 2021 and continues to stay near that point, so it’s not surprising. This is certainly nothing new, either. Copper often goes missing from construction and demolition sites as well. Thieves take the precious metal and sell it to recycling centers and other metal retailers. When these thieves tear apart the wires, it’s virtually impossible to verify the legitimacy of their origin. So, while it’s possible this was a spiteful act, monetary motivation is the more likely scenario from our perspective. If you’re reading this, don’t get any ideas.

According to both the Tesla website and Plugshare, this Supercharger station is back in action. The photo showing the damage to the cables is nearly a week old at this point. So, if Telsa has already repaired the supercharger station, we wouldn’t be surprised.