Green Machines | Charging cable theft, range anxiety and Volvo’s luxurious ES90 – Sustainability newsletter November 2025

The number of electric charging points has been growing rapidly. According to Zapmap, a charging point mapping and data service, by the end of September there were over 86,000 public charging points in around 43,500 locations across the UK. This is a 22 per cent increase on the same month in 2024 – reassuring progress for EV owners and considerers alike.
However, there’s still a way to go to provide the infrastructure needed for full charging coverage and the network’s expansion is not without its challenges. As charging points installation expands criminals have seen an opportunity to cash-in, and cable theft is on the rise. Thieves have been targeting the valuable copper used in the cables and the problem has been spreading. Charging provider InstaVolt recently reported it has seen thefts nearly doubling in 2025 compared to the previous year and it’s an industry-wide problem. Part of the issue is the location of these charging stations which are often in unguarded, poorly lit, remote corners of carparks with low footfall making them particularly vulnerable to criminal damage.

Stolen cables have a huge financial impact on charging providers, while additionally causing uncertainty and inconvenience for EV drivers, but there are solutions. Practical changes such as better lighting, in-person patrols and CCTV serve as a deterrent to criminals and also help to tackle concerns around public safety whilst charging. This is an issue ChargeSafe, an organisation which assesses charging points for safety and accessibility is particularly passionate about. You can find out more about ChargeSafe in this episode of the Women in the Driving Seat Podcast where Autotrader’s Erin Baker chats to ChargeSafe's Kate Tyrrell.
Improving the locations of charging points will be key to helping drivers have more confidence in electric cars. Meanwhile, charging providers are exploring additional technologies to protect their cables from criminals including anti-theft alarms, GPS tracking and ‘smartwater’ which douses cut cables and the thief responsible in a traceable liquid which is visible in UV light. Hopefully these measures along with cooperation between the police and providers will help to tackle the issue.

Public charging is of course closely related range anxiety. Here at Autotrader we’ve been driving electric cars for years and sampling the delights and frustrations of the evolving charging infrastructure. We currently have two very different EVs on long-term test: Reviews Editor Dant Trent has spent four months getting to know a retro-inspired Renault 5 while Editorial Director Erin Baker has a Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer on her driveway. The VW has roughly twice the range of the Renault with the ID.7 having nearly 400 miles of range and effectively banishing range anxiety entirely. Yet, as we are discovering the R5’s smaller battery is proving much easier to live with than you might think – plus it’s less resource-heavy to produce.

We regularly cover stories on electric car batteries and the minerals required to make them and last year Volvo was the first manufacturer to introduce a battery passport for the EX90. This contains information about the battery’s carbon footprint, the recycled content used and where the critical raw minerals like cobalt, nickel, graphite, and lithium were sourced. These details will become mandatory in the EU from 2027, but Volvo was ahead of the curve and the ES90 which we drove recently also has its own battery passport. You may be wondering what this looks like in practice and you can watch Rory Reid demonstrate the feature here. The battery passport initiative is intended to increase transparency by addressing data gaps in global supply chains. It is hoped that once implemented, battery passports will be another way to build confidence in electric cars for both the public and the wider industry.

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