What kind of a wussy power connector is that? Surely you want something like a 120A ceeform? That'd charge the fecker in double quick time.

It can't be long before some smartarse comes up with an adaptor that sends a fake signal to their posts and charges your unapproved vehicle at some poor subscriber's expense. I'd be willing to take a bet that the first few poor sods on the receiving end of an unexpectedly large bill will get the stock "our technology is totally fraud proof so it must be your fault" response.

Let's see, unlikely to be caught at it? Check. Easy for a shady punter to use? Check. Cheap to implement? Check. Lots of money in it? Check. Therefore sufficiently tempting to get the organised crime boys into the business of knocking out moody adaptor boxes that'll give you a free charge.

I think that this one's more open to fraudulent use than a "swipe your card here" system would be, at least we can say with some certainty where the loopholes are there. This system offers the potential to be more rewarding to anyone who cracks it. What are they going to do? "We're sorry to our customers who can't charge their cars up, but your codes have been cracked and we've had to disable them. We'll be happy to sell you a new car....."

Mine's the one with the Tesla keys and the thick cable ending in a black box of indeterminate Eastern European origin in the pockets.

Don't let HP see this story. Or you will soon be able to buy a leccy car at PC World for only £29.99 and enough charge to get you to the first HP recharging point. At only £39.99 per (short) shot. Using any other cartr^H^H^H plug will invalidate warranty/set immobiliser.

Let's hope the EU mandates a common charging connection for all leccy cars

"Let's hope the EU mandates ..."

Er, we might be better advised to hope for a worldwide standard.

...surely the very antithesis of a 'better place'?

Simple, CCTV like there is at any petrol station. Times of the fill up are more than likely recorded, which car, filled up and which "puimp" at what time. record number plate. arrest that man!

Whats that, fake number plates? Well tell me how that is different to current fill ups then.

>...surely the very antithesis of a 'better place'?

I suppose some Israelis may be able to envision a worse place.