There has been a series of reports in the past few days suggesting that Chinese electric vehicles could be configured for monitoring and manipulation by the Chinese government.

Most spectacularly, the Asian Times reported on 7 November that Israel has reportedly begun confiscating Chinese electric cars given to senior Israeli Defence Force officers amid fears of espionage, data leaks and national security threats linked to potential unauthorised Chinese government access.

“The IDF is recalling 700 Chinese electric cars, mostly the Chery Tiggo 8 Pro model, which had been offered to lieutenant colonels and colonels with large families since 2022.

“The IDF is recalling 700 Chinese electric cars, mostly the Chery Tiggo 8 Pro model, which had been offered to lieutenant colonels and colonels with large families since 2022,” the report said, adding that the confiscation had begun following orders from the IDF Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir.

However other reports on the security of electric cars suggest that nobody should discuss anything confidential or commercially sensitive while travelling in an electric car.

The same day the ABC carried a report saying Norwegian transport operator Ruter had published test results showing that Chinese bus maker Yutong Group had access to buses’ control systems for software updates and diagnostics on the model they tested, and this access could be exploited to remotely disable the bus.

The ABC quoted Yutong’s Australian distributor, VDI Group saying the company had sold about 150 electric buses into Australia.

It also quoted Alastair MacGibbon, chief strategy officer at CyberCX and former head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, said all “connected” vehicles, and particularly electric vehicles, required constant connectivity with manufacturers who have access to microphones, cameras, and GPS devices.

In other words, no one in an electric vehicle can be confident that anything they say cannot be remotely monitored. This will place serious constraints on anyone wanting to have a confidential conversation in a vehicle—whether about national or commercial issues, By 2030 it is projected that EVs could account for 50 percent of new car sales in Australia and the 15-25 percent of the overall vehicle fleet.

Maybe this could produce a new lease of life for legacy unconnected fossil fuel vehicles. There is precedent for antiquated technology gaining a new lease of life because it is immune to hacking. A decade ago, after Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA had spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone, Patrick Sensburg, head of the Bundestag’s parliamentary inquiry into NSA spying, told the press that staff were considering using manual typewriters for confidential work.

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