UK Motoring Expert Warns of Threat to Britain From Chinese Cars

Professor Jim Saker labels electric vehicles an 'effective Trojan horse'

A woman uses her phone in a Xiaopeng Motor showroom, a Chinese electric car manufacturer, in Beijing on March 19, 2021. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images)

Electric cars made in China pose a security threat to Britain because of “Trojan horse” software which could allow officials in Beijing to remotely immobilise hundreds of thousands of them in a stroke, according to a respected voice in the UK auto industry.

In a statement, Professor Jim Saker, president of the Institute of the Motor Industry, said “the threat of connected electric vehicles flooding the country could be the most effective Trojan horse that the Chinese establishment has,” if it wanted to destabilise the UK economy during a political crisis.

When Boris Johnson was prime minister he announced plans to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, which is expected to lead to a massive increase in demand for electric cars.

Mr. Saker called on the government to delay the ban on new petrol and diesel cars by five years to allow UK and other European manufacturers to step up production and meet the challenge from cheaper Chinese models.

Mr. Saker, who is also head of the Centre for Automotive Management at Loughborough University, said, “Virtually every country is trying to fight against an overreliance on China, except the UK.”

Mr. Saker said the launch last year of the government’s Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre was “far too late to have any impact in what should have been a long-term strategy.”

Currently, most electric cars for sale in the UK, from Tesla downwards, are more expensive than the petrol or diesel equivalent.

China Biggest Exporter of Electric Vehicles

Earlier this year China said it had overtaken Japan as the world’s biggest exporter of electric cars, with 1.07 million electric vehicles being sent overseas in the first quarter of the year.

Several Chinese brands, including BYD, Wuling, Nio, Xpeng, and Zeekr, have started or are planning to begin exporting electric cars to the UK and they are expected to be significantly cheaper and more affordable.

One of the reasons Chinese electric cars are cheaper is because of the mass production of lithium batteries in the Far East, which lowers the price.

Britain currently does not produce lithium batteries in any great numbers and in January, Britishvolt went into administration with its plans for a gigafactory near Newcastle producing batteries for electric cars unrealised.

Andy Mayer, chief operating officer and energy analyst at the Institute of Economic Affairs, disagreed with the threat of a Chinese Trojan horse attack and told The Epoch Times, “There are many reasons to be concerned by the domination of markets by firms controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Trojan horse software is not top of the list.”

He said: “While possible, and worth wargaming, these threats are easily identified, and the reputational damage of being caught so extreme that the cost isn’t worth whatever nefarious benefit is intended. Such an attack would be a one-shot event, with limited capacity for anything more than short-term disruption. Followed by a trillion dollar trade war.”

‘Bad Actors ... More Likely to Use Third-Party Hacker’

Mr. Mayer said, “Bad actors would more likely infect software through third-party hacker cells to mask their origin, than leave a breadcrumb trail in the commercial code of a corporation seeking trade access.”

He said the bigger issue with using Chinese technology was quality and the danger of batteries catching fire or computer bugs in cruise control leading to accidents.

Earlier this month MPs on the Intelligence and Security Committee published a report (pdf) which said Beijing had been able “to successfully penetrate every sector of the UK’s economy.”

The report said Whitehall’s approach to the threat of the CCP was inadequately resourced, incoherent, and short-sighted.

But the report went on to say, “The UK is unlikely to be the top priority for China when it comes to espionage and interference: the United States, and perceived domestic threats to the CCP’s rule (known as ‘the Five Poisons’–Taiwanese independence, Tibetan independence, Xinjiang separatists, the Chinese democracy movement and the Falun Gong), are likely to receive the most attention from the Chinese Intelligence Services.”

In response to the report, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government would consider the committee’s recommendations and publish a full response “in due course,“ but said his government had ”already taken actions” since the committee heard the bulk of its evidence in 2020.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Department for Business and Trade but has not received a response.

PA Media contributed to this report.