http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1363389-people-are-stealing-batteries-from-hybrid-cars/ People Are Stealing Batteries From Hybrid Cars By Jonathan Zhou, Epoch Times | May 20, 2015
[image http://img.theepochtimes.com/n3/eet-content/uploads/2015/05/20/472520634-676x450.jpg A child opens a door to a Toyota vehicle as his father sits inside the car at a Toyota showroom in Tokyo on May 8, 2015. (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images) ] When life introduces new conveniences, it usually also comes with new problems. Online shopping has been a boon for consumers—and cyber-thieves. Likewise, hybrid cars are simultaneously an ally of the environment and of battery thieves. The police in San Francisco have identified a growing trend of thieves tearing out the battery out of Toyota Priuses and presumably selling them on the black market, reported ABC7 News. It’s unlikely that the thefts could be attributed to random acts of vandalism. The batteries weigh 120 pounds, are connected to dangerous cables, and would take a professional mechanic an hour to remove. Yahoo Autos says that the outbreak of theft coincides with the expiration of the battery warrant for the first-generation of Priuses, whose owners are looking for replacements. Replacements can cost as much as $2,500 retail, but only $500-$1,000 on Craigslist. Dealers, however, have been warning car-buyers about the possibility of theft as early as 2008. That the batteries are mostly harvested from third-generation Priuses are another sign that the thieves are professional and organized. They would have to make in-house modifications to be able to sell those batteries in usable form to owners of the first-generation Prius. Battery thefts from hybrid cars have also been reported in Sacramento and New York. Ironically, the Prius vehicle is actually one of the least likely car models to be stolen in the United States. The silver lining is that battery theft could decline as the market share for fully electric vehicles grows, as the batteries for such vehicles will most likely be so heavy that it would be impractical for the thieves to transport them. For instance, the battery for the Tesla Model S comes at a hefty 1,200 pounds. [© theepochtimes.com] http://www.citylab.com/crime/2015/05/hybrid-vehicle-batteries-are-disappearing-in-san-francisco/393701/ Hybrid-Vehicle Batteries Are Disappearing in San Francisco John Metcalfe [2015/05/20] [Tweet https://twitter.com/vicleeabc7/status/599274351448330240 Thieves now stealing batteries from hybrid/electric cars. Appear to be pros because of danger of electrocution. pic.twitter.com/F2qWXLnoe1 — Vic Lee (@vicleeabc7) May 15, 2015 image https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFEM2BFVAAAMUFG.jpg video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjlLnzK-yYA Gen 3 Prius Stolen HV Battery lusciousgarage Jan 27, 2015 Second one we've seen in a week. Look out San Fran! As an anti-theft measure we can replace the 12mm bolts with tamper-proof ones and shield the harnesses with sheet metal. If it slows thieves down, that's enough. Contact us for service: http://lusciousgarage.com $7000 used may be little high... with new replacement modules (we don't recommend used packs), used body harness (as available), we might get the price below $5000, but you forget how many parts are involved... SMR assembly, HV fan, HV battery chassis, Smart key antenna... It adds up. ] Inventive, no doubt muscular thieves have found a new target. What’s worse than somebody breaking into your car and stealing a purse or laptop? Try a thief ripping out the battery, rendering the vehicle into a sad, immovable magnet for parking tickets. That’s what’s happening with hybrid cars around San Francisco, according to this report from ABC 7. After talking with a recent victim of theft, parking garages, and a Toyota dealership, the news station concludes the city is facing a spike in battery-ganking: John Nashed’s Toyota Prius was broken into when he went to his parked car. “The passenger rear window was broken into and I look inside and everything is just a mess,” Nashed said. “It looked like a tornado went through.” A burglar made his way into the back of his car and stole the 150-pound battery that powers his engine. The car was towed to a garage for repairs. That’s when he learned there’s been a rash of Prius battery thefts in the city. “There there was an Allstate insurance adjuster there and he’s like, wait a minute, I actually have three cases that I’m working on. Same exact problem,” Nashed said. Via Twitter, Nashed says he hasn’t heard anything about the police finding a culprit and his insurance will be taking care of the repairs. Removing hybrid batteries is a tactical challenge. There must be either multiple thieves or one, Dwayne Johnson-sized baddie, because the items are heavy enough to shred untrained back muscles. Then there’s the risk of accidentally going up like the Fourth of July. Toyota warns that improperly tinkering with a Prius high-voltage system can cause “serious injury or death from severe burns or electric shock.” (The batteries pack a punch of roughly 200 volts.) Still, the payoff might make it worth it. Hybrid batteries are going on Craigslist for $500 to $1200—more than enough to acquire a lunch bag of meth or whatever is motivating Bay Area thieves these days. And there’s evidence criminals have known about hybrids’ valuable cargo for a while. Check out this January video from San Francisco’s Luscious Garage, outlining the anatomy of a battery heist (up to $9,000 in repairs!) [© citylab.com] http://arstechnica.com/cars/2015/05/toyota-prius-batteries-being-targeted-by-car-thieves/ Toyota Prius batteries being targeted by car thieves by Sebastian Anthony (UK) - May 20, 2015 Ars Technica UK Batteries are being stolen in 20 minutes, sold on Craigslist for around $1,000. [image / Prius3 blog http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2010-07-25_munich-toyota-prius-04-640x427.jpg video flash A video showing a third-gen Prius with a stolen battery ] First the thieves came for the car radios, and I did not speak out. Then it was airbags. And now, according to Toyota dealers, battery packs are increasingly becoming the target of smash-and-grab thieves. The Toyota Prius, as you may know, is a hybrid—it has a small 1.5- or 1.8-litre engine, along with an electric motor that's driven by a battery pack (nickel-metal-hydride, NiMH, in the case of normal Priuses, and lithium-ion for the plug-in hybrid version). Like most batteries, the one in the Prius gradually loses its efficiency over time, eventually necessitating a replacement. The cost for replacing a Prius battery pack is not insignificant—outside of the warranty period, it's about $2,500 in the US. Curiously, it's much cheaper in the UK: just £800 according to Toyota. The second-gen Prius, released between 2003 and 2009, was a huge sales hit—and now, many of those vehicles are coming up to the point where they need a new battery. Some third-gen Priuses, which went on sale in 2009, may start seeing battery fade as well. That demand for replacement batteries, it would seem, is fuelling a number of battery thefts in California. KGO-TV is reporting that there has been a "rash of thefts in San Francisco," and quotes a Toyota dealership that has replaced "quite a few" stolen batteries. Car thieves smash the rear windows of the Prius, cut through the connecting wires, and then pull out the 150-pound (68kg) battery pack. KGO reports that the thefts are being carried out in about 20 minutes. According to John Nashed, who had his Prius broken into, "We looked on Craigslist, the batteries are going around $900 to a $1,000"—a lot of money for a 20-minute smash-and-grab job, and, for a prospective buyer, a good discount over an official replacement battery. Prius owners should of course be very wary of buying a used battery from the black or grey market; you have no idea how many miles have been driven on the battery. Yahoo Auto reports that the thefts seem to be localised to San Francisco at the moment, and also that Prius battery packs aren't marked with a serial number or VIN, which makes them easy to sell. Apparently, according to Luscious Garage in San Fransisco, if you're a Prius owner who wants to mitigate against theft, you should replace the battery's existing 12mm bolts with tamper-proof bolts. Presumably that won't stop the thieves from first smashing your windows and damaging your upholstery, only to find out the battery can't be removed, however. As electric vehicles become more popular, batteries will increasingly become the target of theft. The good news is that it should be fairly easy for car makers to secure the battery pack to the chassis in some way; and of course, the sheer size and weight of some battery packs should deter petty car thieves. The Tesla Model S battery, for example, comes in at around 1,000 pounds (450kg). [© arstechnica.com] http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1098386_toyota-prius-owners-beware-battery-theft-perhaps-by-inept-thieves Toyota Prius Owners: Beware Battery Theft, Perhaps By Inept Thieves By Stephen Edelstein May 20, 2015 Car theft is something every owner has to worry about, whether the vehicle is powered by gasoline, electricity, or a combination of both, But sometimes, rather than stealing an entire car, criminals only go for certain valuable components. Thieves in San Francisco are reportedly targeting Toyota Prius hybrids--and stealing only their battery packs. And it's possible those stolen battery packs are being sold on the black market as replacements for packs in high-mileage cars, reports The Verge. Over the past few weeks, there have been several cases of stolen Prius battery packs in San Francisco. Thieves apparently smashed the cars' rear windows and lifted the battery packs out from the trunks of the vehicles. Since battery packs don't come with identification numbers, there's less risk in stealing them. It reportedly takes a trained professional about an hour to remove a Prius battery pack--presumably with all safety precautions--but the thieves apparently do it in about 20 minutes. Presumably these thieves have some knowledge of electrical equipment, as they've been able to disconnect and remove the 120-pound packs without getting electrocuted. However, they may know a bit less about the mechanics of hybrid cars. First- and second-generation Prius models are the ones most likely to need replacement battery packs after their warranties have expired (either 8 years/100,000 miles or 10 years/150,000 miles, depending on the state). These packs can cost up to $3,000 retail, but a rash of Craigslist posts for packs costing $900 to $1,000 has led to suspicions that stolen packs are being passed off as cheaper alternatives to dealership replacements. There's just one little problem: The vast majority of stolen packs come from third-generation Prius models, and aren't immediately interchangeable with the packs in older models. That would seem to throw a wrench into the whole scheme. This isn't the first reported spate of Prius battery-pack thefts. The New York Police Department recorded 14 incidents of theft between November 2014 and February 2015. The majority of victim cars were Prius taxis. Ironically, because of their typically-high mileage, taxis are also among the most likely to need replacement battery packs--black-market or otherwise. [© 2015 Green Car Reports] ... http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1077652_replacing-a-2001-toyota-prius-battery-pack-what-it-cost Replacing A 2001 Toyota Prius Battery Pack: What It Cost (Jul 2012) ... http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1078138_toyota-hybrid-battery-replacement-cost-guide Toyota Hybrid Battery Replacement Cost Guide (Aug 2012) ... http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1071391_life-after-death-what-happens-when-your-prius-battery-dies Life After Death: What Happens When Your Prius Battery Dies (Jan 2012) For EVLN posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/motoring/kia-soul-the-koreans-get-funky-31225662.html KIA Soul: The Koreans get funky http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/electric-bus-demo STM unveils fully electric bus to hit streets in fall of 2016 http://www.independent.ie/life/motoring/car-news/how-david-plugged-into-a-bit-of-history-with-ecar-driving-test-31216301.html David passed Goliath driving test though EVs are considered automatics http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/local/city-testing-fully-electric-bus-this-week/article_5e4f71d1-b8f5-5b1f-999d-2845d1eb1a3d.html Columbia MO testing e-bus on Gold and Black CoMo Connect routes http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83534360/ More EVSE installations for Baltimore MD municipal garages http://www.trivalleycentral.com/casa_grande_dispatch/area_news/electric-car-promotion-drive-stops-in-casa-grande/article_3c6c3bba-fa67-11e4-ac62-03b83f36c80c.html Electric car promotion drive stops in Casa Grande, AZ + EVLN: What Attracted Consumers To Their 2015 Kia Soul EV, Leafrs say no {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Hey-Buddy-Wanna-buy-a-hot-battery-pack-cheap-CL-ad-v-tp4675771.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
