I’m very happy to call this FUD

 

Obviously got bored of the EV bursts into flames headlines, so they're trying a different tactic now.

 

The second most stolen electric vehicle. Ummmmm. So how does that compare to EV thefts generally? One Hyundai compared to two Teslas? Ten vs 5? Or what? And who steals an electric car anyway, when they've no idea of the SoC? With an ICE car you can at least carry 'round a jerrycan and top-up in a hurry.

Edit#2: Out of 133,000 cars stolen in 2022, 81 were EVs. That's 1 EV : 1,605 ICEVs stolen. Against a population of 1 BEV : 38 ICEVs. So an ICEV is 42x more likely to be stolen than a BEV. [double the 20x greater probability of an ICEV catching fire] Caveat: I'm only inclined to spend a modest amount of time researching this. So I'm happy to be corrected by anyone who has looked into it more thoroughly.

Interestingly, this article appeared in October but the annual police theft statistics are published back in March/April. And those are now behind a paywall. And the article doesn't state any numbers. So where did they get their information about theft numbers and why aren't any numbers mentioned?

A parallel Daily Express article references theft numbers 'from the ONS' but they aren't the ones who publish the base statsitics, these come from the police, via the Home Office. Take a closer look at their articles and they quote Vantage Leasing as their source, who then refer to the ONS. Ummmm again. They say that vantage has 'discovered' EV theft statistics, but no one has to 'discover' anything - the stats are in the public domain (albeit you have to pay a small fee to get past the paywall).

'A spokesperson for Vantage Leasing highlighted that electric vehicles are particularly at risk of theft as many of the most popular models feature keyless entry'

Oh, that old and discredited chestnut, beloved of the lazy motoring hack up against a deadline with no copy to file. I think it's a syllogism (dogs have four legs, cats have four legs, so all cats are dogs). Dark-coloured cars are much more likely to be stolen than light-coloured ones. So, obviously, buying a light-coloured car reduces the chance of theft? Of course not. Because there's no linkage. Just more dark-coloured cars on the road. Similarly, there's no linkage between comfort access and theft. Most of the cars targetted for theft have comfort access, is all.

And from a spokesman at Tracker Ltd.: “with increasing demand comes a greater risk of these vehicles being targeted by thieves” ??? how so? Having more EVs on the road does nothing to increase the risk of them being stolen. This is just the guy trying to spook people into buying their car tracker.

 

Tesla has pin to drive. If you have that enabled ts impossible to steal a Tesla

 

A welsh news site one came out with some even more silly numbers.

Figures reveal most-stolen electric vehicle amid security warning

New data from Freedom of Information requests has revealed the 10 most stolen electric vehicles in the UK

www.walesonline.co.uk

 

Tesla model 3.....14 cars stolen over the last 5 years? This is in average 3 cars per year...WOW, I better make sure that I put my two GSD on guard tonight 😂😂😂

 

Maybe time to upgrade security if the I5 really is that vulnerable and it’s not just a relay attack.

 

I'm surprised so many S's have been stolen. Is that relay attack and no PIN enabled perhaps? I would have thought the e-tron would be more desirable to thieves too.

 

Have you tried getting hold of Tesla parts?!?

 

No suprise, it’s been on sale longer, 4 years ago there was not the choice there is now, ergo leafs, Zoe’s and model s’s stolen…..in tiny numbers.

 

If it’s real and not FUD, then possibly either a relay attack (do Hyundai use motion sensing key fobs in these things?) or a blue link account compromise.

That or someone has compromised access tokens in a similar vein to what David Colombo discovered with Tesla not long ago...patched up since. He was a good kid and told them!

 

Here is a report of cars stolen no breakdown between ICE or electric Mercedes in 2nd spot but not registered in electric? Could of course be because they have not made manny sales I suppose🤣 but I think the EQC has sold Ok in the U.K.🤷‍♀️

The Most Stolen Car Brands In The UK & How To Avoid Theft

Thousands of cars are stolen in the UK every year. We've compiled the most commonly stolen models and what you can do to protect your car.

www.service4service.co.uk

 

The Wales Online article is a joke:

’More than 130,000 electric vehicles were snatched from people’s driveways in just two years.’

and then

’There were 130,521 vehicle thefts in the UK between 2022 and 2023, ‘

Uh? So 50% of all vehicles stolen are EVs?

and then

’…study by Leasing Options revealed that Nissan Leaf owners are at the highest risk of car theft. So far this year, criminals are still targeting Nissan’s first electric vehicle, with 49 registered thefts so far.’

49? Forty-nine puts it in the #1 spot out of 130,000?

Complete rubbish from start to finish.

 

The Wales Online article is a joke:

’More than 130,000 electric vehicles were snatched from people’s driveways in just two years.’

I thought there were around 900,000 EVs in the UK now. So they are saying 15% of EVs have been stolen? Actually it will be a higher percentage, because their figures cover two years and the total number of EVs was lower at the start of their sample period.

But, you know what, if there are so many EVs being stolen, it just proves what many of us already know - they are very desirable cars!

 

Why would anyone steal an EV? They are worthless second hand because nobody wants them.

1) They are only any good for short trips around town.
2) The battery only lasts 3 years
3) The tyres produce so much particulates they are worse for the environment than diesel
4) They catch fire all the time
5) They use loads of rare materials that are exclusively mined by children in poor countries
6) They are so heavy they destroy roads
7) They are all about control
8) They are uninsurable because of reason 4
9) The national grid can’t cope
10) They run on coal so aren’t clean anyway
11) Hydrogen is the real future. Toyota…
12) China
13) They are too expensive (ignore the worthless second hand part)
14) They kidnap people
15) They cause car parks to collapse
16) They also cause car parks to collapse due to fires
17) They are the cause of WW3

I’m not sure about 17 but if it happens then there will no doubt be some sort of connection so didn’t want to miss that one!

 

Why would anyone steal an EV? They are worthless second hand because nobody wants them.

1) They are only any good for short trips around town.
2) The battery only lasts 3 years
3) The tyres produce so much particulates they are worse for the environment than diesel
4) They catch fire all the time
5) They use loads of rare materials that are exclusively mined by children in poor countries
6) They are so heavy they destroy roads
7) They are all about control
8) They are uninsurable because of reason 4
9) The national grid can’t cope
10) They run on coal so aren’t clean anyway
11) Hydrogen is the real future. Toyota…
12) China
13) They are too expensive (ignore the worthless second hand part)
14) They kidnap people
15) They cause car parks to collapse
16) They also cause car parks to collapse due to fires
17) They are the cause of WW3

I’m not sure about 17 but if it happens then there will no doubt be some sort of connection so didn’t want to miss that one!

Thanks for that
Was thinking of getting one….not now 👍

 

How about

(18) EV electromagnetic fields generated by battery and motors kills people with pacemakers and causes epileptic fits and brain damage[1]

[1] Wales Online reporting of Leasing Solutions Ltd. research based on data forwarded to them by ONS Consulting, an associate of the Shell Technology Institute from a project partly funded by the Tory parliamentary backbench Transport Research Group. See #DontBuyAnEVItllJustExplodeOrBeStolen

 

Perhaps if manufacturers stopped the stupid keyless entry systems, there wouldn't be so many thefts. How hard is it to get a fob from your pocket and press a button for goodness sake.

 

At the very least, there should be the option on all cars to switch off the keyless entry and use it as a regular push button fob. I did that with mine, I don't see the point of a trivial, negligible labour saving in avoiding pushing a button if it means having to faff about keeping keys in Faraday pouches or worrying about their proximity to the door, or side of the house. What concerns me is when I change cars, it doesn't look like all models give you that option.

They’ve been fitting motion sensors into keyfobs so that the keys are “silent” from an RF perspective once they’re set down. On another forum we tried a little experiment and found the fobs on our cars went to sleep in under a minute.

And that's find if you are buying a brand new car today, but it doesn't fix the issue with the hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of existing cars which still have that vulnerability. The car manufacturers are not going back, replacing or upgrading existing key fobs to fix the vulnerabilities in the cars they sold over previous years, they leave the owners to deal with the issue.

 

Why would anyone steal an EV? They are worthless second hand because nobody wants them.

1) They are only any good for short trips around town.
2) The battery only lasts 3 years
3) The tyres produce so much particulates they are worse for the environment than diesel
4) They catch fire all the time
5) They use loads of rare materials that are exclusively mined by children in poor countries
6) They are so heavy they destroy roads
7) They are all about control
8) They are uninsurable because of reason 4
9) The national grid can’t cope
10) They run on coal so aren’t clean anyway
11) Hydrogen is the real future. Toyota…
12) China
13) They are too expensive (ignore the worthless second hand part)
14) They kidnap people
15) They cause car parks to collapse
16) They also cause car parks to collapse due to fires
17) They are the cause of WW3

I’m not sure about 17 but if it happens then there will no doubt be some sort of connection so didn’t want to miss that one!

I thought I just stumbled into a brainstorm session at the Daily Fail. 😎🤣

 

Perhaps if manufacturers stopped the stupid keyless entry systems, there wouldn't be so many thefts. How hard is it to get a fob from your pocket and press a button for goodness sake.

They’ve been fitting motion sensors into keyfobs so that the keys are “silent” from an RF perspective once they’re set down. On another forum we tried a little experiment and found the fobs on our cars went to sleep in under a minute.

 

I wonder if it's the used parts sales market that attracts them. You can make thousands selling batteries / cells to used market. Leafs and Zoe's have a large use base with demand for replacements. Model S batteries are the most repairable and been around longer so more demand for repair parts.

 

Sadly, it is not a FUD. Exactly the same happened to mine and our insurance company said that they have seen a lot of them stolen this year. They don't tend to be recovered and they believe a lot of them are simply taken apart for parts as they are so expensive and hard to find. They already have a massive lawsuit in the US on their hands... check the news. All related to the lack of security. I think the insurance for these cars is going to rocket so they won't be worth buying

 

Haha - and I've just come across this article, another vote of confidence in Ionic 5! I wonder how this investigation concludes... US opens safety probe into Hyundai Ioniq 5 EVs over power loss reports

 

And that's find if you are buying a brand new car today, but it doesn't fix the issue with the hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of existing cars which still have that vulnerability. The car manufacturers are not going back, replacing or upgrading existing key fobs to fix the vulnerabilities in the cars they sold over previous years, they leave the owners to deal with the issue.

It is what it is for existing cars. Always has been, always will be. If you want better security (or inherent flaws removed) then there’s no option but to buy a newer model that hopefully doesn’t have those issues. I’ve never in the history of autos heard of a manufacturer retrofitting better security to its existing fleet - have you?

 

It isn't the 1980s or 1990s when electronic systems where physically fixed at the point of manufacture, today most of these systems are running firmware which can be updated to address any weaknesses. At the very least, updated to ensure any bugs and vulnerabilities are fixed and to include the option for owners to disable keyless functionality which introduces vulnerabilities.

 

Sadly, it is not a FUD. Exactly the same happened to mine and our insurance company said that they have seen a lot of them stolen this year. They don't tend to be recovered and they believe a lot of them are simply taken apart for parts as they are so expensive and hard to find. They already have a massive lawsuit in the US on their hands... check the news. All related to the lack of security. I think the insurance for these cars is going to rocket so they won't be worth buying

Sorry to hear that. What’s the vulnerability they exploited?

 

There are software updates happening all the time. This is something that should be potentially addressed as a software solution, not a physical solution. They could have done it ages ago. The fact there is still no comment from them or action speaks volumes. Customer comes last

 

So this is an account / bluelink exploit?

 

@Contented Cat Welcome to the forum by the way

 

Hi All, I am the 'not so' lucky owner who lost their car in the article. I only wish it was FUD but sadly a real theft of a real car and a family whose life got a bit more challenging because of it. The keys were stationary for days and so if they do go to sleep you can be clear it is not a relay theft. The fact it was cloned seems unlikely. It would have had to happen many days before we travelled and I believe the keys rotate codes so how would an old code played back open the vehicle? They go up to the car and touch the handle and it opens. Ruling out relay it seems they must have something that mimics the key, a digital clone seems likely, and if so how do they get it? Surely the telemetry data at Hyundai would offer some explanation, which I am sure they must collect, but none of this was offered up as part of the explanation. If they have it and its helpful then it remains a secret. I would urge you all to fit some form of security that stops the car being driven even with the key (ghost etc, crooklock) as you probably need to operate on the assumption someone has your key. Mine went 3 days after a neighbours suffered the same fate, all went to the same location so it is clear this is organised. I am now aware of many owners who are in the same boat so although no one is warning you from any authoritative source, be careful, its a lot of car to lose so easily.

 

Hi

Really sorry to hear about what happened. Was your key in the house, or had it gone on holiday with you?

Was the neighbour's car an Ioniq 5 as well?

 

Really sorry to hear that @LostMyIoniq

Are you absolutely certain that your keyfob(s) do actually go to sleep / stop transmitting. If they don’t then there is always the possibility this was targeted relay theft.

If the keys do go silent then, cloning keys is generally not something trivial or simple to accomplish without physically having the keys.

The other possibility is that there was an exploit on your actual account / Bluelink functionality. If that’s the case then Hyundai won’t be shouting about it from the rooftops and they will be quietly patching things. Though it could constitute a far more serious fleetwide risk. This is how Tesla got caught out a few years ago. Luckily David Colombo was a white hat kind guy instead of a serial car thief entrepreneur

 

Really sorry to hear that @LostMyIoniq

Are you absolutely certain that your keyfob(s) do actually go to sleep / stop transmitting. If they don’t then there is always the possibility this was targeted relay theft.

If the keys do go silent then, cloning keys is generally not something trivial or simple to accomplish without physically having the keys.

The other possibility is that there was an exploit on your actual account / Bluelink functionality. If that’s the case then Hyundai won’t be shouting about it from the rooftops and they will be quietly patching things. Though it could constitute a far more serious fleetwide risk. This is how Tesla got caught out a few years ago. Luckily David Colombo was a white hat kind guy instead of a serial car thief entrepreneur

I have not idea what it was and if the keys go to sleep as documentation on that is scant so this is all theory although online people testify to the car not opening if the keys are not moved. You could test it yourself. The company with the facts is keeping mum.

 

I remember reading about car thefts they linked to a car service garage, a dodgy employee was cloning the fobs and selling the information on. Greed caught up with him as it was too obvious how the key fobs were being cloned.

 

Or perhaps you have watched "Gone in 60 seconds" to many times? The Mercedes employee was the one ordering keys for them 😂😂😂