By William Clavey
Car theft is on the rise in the U.S. and Canada, but the thieves don't seem interested in EVs.
Summary
- Car theft in the US and Canada hit record numbers in 2023.
- New tech like keyless entry is fueling car theft escalation.
- Thieves avoid EVs due to their advanced security features and lack of demand.
Car theft in the US and Canada reached record numbers in 2023. A recent report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) indicates that between January and July 2023, more than 80,000 vehicles were reported stolen per month, totaling nearly 500,000 car thefts during the first half of the year. This equates to a 2% increase versus 2022. California was the state where car theft was at its highest, with a total of 99,769 stolen cars in the first half of 2023.
In Canada, auto theft is also a pressing issue. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently summoned a national summit to fight against auto theft, which rose 50% in the province of Quebec, 48.3% in Ontario, 34.5% in Atlantic Canada and 18.35% in Alberta in 2022. This spike was triggered by several different factors. The COVID-19 global pandemic, for starters, which led to serious supply chain issues, created significant discrepancies in supply and demand all over the world. Hot markets to which some of our stolen cars are being shipped - like Dubai - began sourcing cars whichever way they saw fit, increasing demand in the black market.
New technologies, such as keyless entry, give thieves easier methods to steal a car, allowing them to simply copy your key fob's signal. The motivations for stealing cars have also changed. A few decades ago, cars were being stolen so their parts could be sold on the black market. Today, it's so they can be shipped and sold to other markets.
Which cars are thieves interested in? At the top of NICB's list, you'll find GM and Ford full-size trucks, like the F-150 and the Silverado/Sierra. The Honda Civic, the Accord, and the Toyota Camry are all hot items in the US. In Canada, the top spots go to the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV4. What's interesting, however, is that car thieves are not targeting electric vehicles (EVs). As a matter of fact, vehicles like the Tesla Model 3 are ranked among the least stolen vehicles in North America. Why is that?
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EVs Are Typically Always Connected
Yes, it's true that all new cars now come with some form of an app to remotely operate some features, but EVs are considerably more advanced in that respect. Tesla invented the whole concept of being able to control your car remotely using your phone. Thanks to features like Sentry Mode, which relies on a myriad of cameras to monitor your car's surroundings in real-time, the owner instantly gets a notification if someone simply gets close to the car.
All EVs come with important remote features that allow the owner to get the car on or off, lock the doors, sound the alarm system and even track the vehicle in real-time. For a thief, that's a big turn-off.
Even If The Cable Is Chopped, An EV Will Refuse To Move
All EVs are engineered to prevent the car from moving if it senses the charge port is being used. Even if the thief decides to chop the charging cable using an industrial pair of cutters, that won't prevent the car from still detecting a J1772 connector (or NACS if it's a Tesla) plugged into its charging port.
Unless that thief finds a way to hack into the car's mainframe, it'll be impossible to get the car into the D position. And since several EVs lock the charge port when their doors are locked, that thief will need something rather strong to beat that connector out of its locked position. The time and effort involved could quickly discourage a thief.
The Destination Markets Don't Care About EVs
Some may argue that an EV can be hacked and controlled by a thief anyway. Those people would be absolutely right. However, it seems that thieves are simply not interested in these types of cars for the simple reason that the markets that request them don't really care for them.
Statistics show that the vast majority of cars stolen in the US and Canada end up in other parts of the world, such as Africa or the Middle East. We're talking about countries where EV infrastructure is weak, or downright non-existent. The buyers of these stolen cars, which typically end up listed on social media platforms like TikTok, are not interested in having to charge their car.
Car thieves therefore seek simple and reliable internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, hence why Toyotas, Hondas and American pickup trucks are among the most stolen cars on this continent. They're easy to steal, and just as easy to sell.
Buying An EV Is A Good Way To Mitigate Car Theft
I was recently contacted by an acquaintance who'd recently gotten her Honda CR-V stolen. She was absolutely enraged by what happened and was seeking advice for a new vehicle that wasn't targeted by thieves. "I don't want to have to go through this again" - she proclaimed in frustration.
To her request, I showed her the data about the least stolen vehicles. Realizing how many EVs were on the list, she placed an order for a brand-new Hyundai IONIQ 5. If you were recently a victim of car theft, then perhaps replacing your ICE with an EV could prevent it from happening again.
