Vandals wreck at least 28 Tesla chargers in Ballarat, cutting cables for copper
Vandals cut charging cables at 28 Tesla superchargers across Ballarat sites to steal copper.
Vandals damaged at least 28 Tesla superchargers at three Ballarat sites on Saturday evening, cutting cables with power tools to target copper for resale. Twenty chargers at Coltman Plaza in Lucas were hit, including 10 installed just the week before.
Six chargers at Wendouree Homemaker Centre and two at Bedggoods Kia were also damaged. The damage forced Tesla drivers to find chargers elsewhere in the city.
One driver arrived to find all 20 chargers unusable. Repair work began Sunday afternoon at the Lucas site.
The theft follows several other cases of copper cable theft across the region.
- 28 across three sites
- Chargers damaged
- 20 at Coltman Plaza
- Lucas chargers destroyed
- 10 installed previous week
- Newly installed chargers hit
- Saturday evening
- When vandalism occurred
Why it mattersEV owners now face unreliable charging in Ballarat and must travel further to find working chargers, raising concerns about infrastructure safety.
AustraliaVictoria's EV charging network has been deliberately damaged; regional Tesla drivers lack reliable supercharging between Ballarat and Melbourne.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 8 h ago
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