Warnings of Chinese electric car invasion are ‘hysterical’

Fears that China could remotely control electric vehicles and ‘paralyse’ Britain’s roads are ‘hysterical’, an EV expert says. 

A report by Professor Jim Saker, president of the Institute of the Motor Industry, said an ‘invasion’ of Chinese cars posed a major security issue, warning ‘the car manufacturer may be in Shanghai and could stop 100,000 to 300,000 cars across Europe, thus paralysing a country’.

However, Professor Phil Mawby, head of electronics power and microsystems at Warwick University, called the threat ‘unlikely nonsense’ – adding that any modern car, whether electric or not, could be susceptible to hacking.

‘All communications devices, whether a PC, mobile, or anything else, can be hacked,’ said Professor Mawby. ‘Anyone intent on causing disrupting the country could do so, that’s nothing new at all.

‘However, there’s a hysterical view that everything from China is bad at the moment. It’s a reaction to a situation we created. 

‘We were happy to manufacture in China for years because it was cheaper, so we offloaded it all, and now we’re scared because they hold all the cards.’

Stories covering the report in British media highlighted BYD as one of the companies set to import large numbers of vehicles.

‘BYD is a privately-owned company, not a government company,’ said Professor Mawby. ‘It’s so unlikely [they would remotely control vehicles] that it’s nonsense, I can’t imagine anyone would take it seriously for one minute.

‘A lot of Western car companies are terrified of China’s progress in EVs. Most companies are making a loss, so they’re looking for reasons to delay [the spread of EVs], putting signs up in people’s minds that they’re unreliable or too heavy, all sorts of nonsense.’

Professor Mawby added that, while highly unlikely, it is not only electric vehicles that could be hacked.

‘In theory, any high-end car – it doesn’t have to be from China, that’s just anti-Chinese and anti-EV rhetoric – that has a communications system that can be updated is susceptible,’ he said. 

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