"I was driving around Sheffield for hours looking for an EV charger and nearly drained my battery doing so"

80 per cent of new vehicles sold in the UK need to be electric by 2030 and Sheffield remains woefully unprepared for it, electric vehicle drivers have said.

Thugs and vandals tearing open rapid chargers have added to the frustration of driving in an ill-equipped city, they say.

“I think it’s getting worse rather than getting better,” said Richard Baldwin, who is self-employed. “The chargers are like a petrol pump and it’s like the diesel cable has been chopped in half. Big, thick chargers are gone.

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“I drive an electric van for work and I got it through the council using the Clean Air Zone grant.

“I charge it on trickle charge overnight and it will be full charge in the morning. For what I do, it’s ideal.

“Occasionally, I forget to charge it up and then I have only got 20-30 miles. I will go out to Morrisons for a quick charge but the last few times I’ve been they have not had any cables there. The cables had been stolen.

“I looked on ‘Zapmap’ and saw Morrisons was free and I went down there. It wasn’t working. Then I tried Crystal Peaks and they weren’t working. I was driving around for about an hour and draining my battery whilst I was doing that.”

The Zapmap app shows charge points and whether they are available to use, to help drivers of electric vvehicles plan their journeys.

A Freedom of Information request by The Star uncovered there had been 67 reports of vandalism and theft on electric vehicle (EV) chargers to South Yorkshire Police just in the last two years.

However, the actual number of vandalism incidents on charge points is likely to be significantly higher, due to many damaged chargers not being reported as crime, it is believed.

Sheffield has a number of different charge points. They include rapid chargers and standard chargers, some are operated by Sheffield City Council, but most are run by private companies.

These public chargers are the lifeline for many families who drive electric vehicles. People living in terraced houses cannot have home charge ports, meaning powering their vehicles is done entirely at public chargers.

60-year-old Richard, from Handsworth, knows he is “fortunate” to have a charger at home.

“Considering we’re supposed to be getting ready by 2030, we aren’t moving forward in a quick way at all,” he said.

Michelle Frances lives in a terraced house with her husband and children in Harley, Rotherham. She has owned electric cars for some time, but said the local system is not fit for purpose.

“The problem is that you need to rely on rapid chargers otherwise you have to leave your car somewhere for six hours,” she told The Star.

Michelle works as a therapeutic counsellor and does need to travel for work. However, the vandals make charging her car even more difficult when there are limited back-up options.

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She said: “Rapid chargers are really hard to come by. The car park near us only has two rapid chargers available.

“My boys play ice hockey, so I’m constantly at ICE Sheffield. There was a rapid charger at Papas Fish & Chips, but that has been ripped out.

“They have a cable attached. These big, thick cables are attached to the unit and someone has cut it at the top and the bottom and the cable is gone. I have come across others where people have randomly smashed up the unit.

“I have to really think about when I have to go out and get my car charged. I’ve gone out at midnight to make sure I have got charge.

“I had a four hour period where I was looking for chargers that were going to be free and I have had to borrow my son’s car on occasions when I couldn’t find a charger.”

Both Michelle and Richard believe Sheffield has a problem on its hands. The city needs more chargers and more needs to be done to keep them operational and free from vandals and thieves targeting the cables, they say.

Michelle said hunting for a charger in the city is akin to what petrol drivers experienced with the petrol shortage.

“Everyone was queuing up for ages,” she said. “But we have to do that constantly…the government and council have got to take this more seriously.”

A spokesperson at Sheffield City Council said: “Earlier this year we launched our Transport Vision for the city. We continue to support the roll-out of more public electric vehicle charge points, to help support people and businesses to transition to electric vehicles.

“We will be delivering 22 On Street Residential EV Charge points in different communities across the city this year and will review how they are used to inform planned additional electric vehicle infrastructure in the city and across South Yorkshire. 

“Whilst targeted vandalism and theft of EV charging cables is a nationwide problem, we are doing what we can working with suppliers, other councils and the police to look at the best options available to us.”