UK Concerned About China's Possible Spying Using Imported Electric Cars - Report

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Senior officials of the United Kingdom have raised suspicions that electric cars imported from China to help hit net zero targets in the country are being used by Beijing to gather information on Britons, The Telegraph reported on Saturday, citing government sources.

"If it is manufactured in a country like China, how certain can you be that it won’t be a vehicle for collecting intel and data? If you have electric vehicles manufactured by countries who are already using technology to spy, why would they not do the same here?" a government source told the newspaper.

"They are high-risk products. We know that China always thinks in very long terms. So if they were providing a product that could do more than just deliver the consumer’s desire to go from A to B, why would they not be doing it? ...It will be used with all of the data that they collect, and that’s how it becomes incredibly valuable and quite dangerous."

The sources believe that technologies embedded in vehicles imported from China could be used to "harvest huge amounts of information," including locations, audio recording and video footage, and make cars vulnerable to remote interference and even being disabled, the newspaper reported.

Significant growth of Chinese electric cars in the UK market is related to the future ban on new cars running on gasoline and diesel, which is due to go into effect in 2030. China is predicted to dominate the UK market as it provides consumers with cheap electric cars, the report said.

The government concerns have been exacerbated by the rapid penetration of Chinese electric vehicles into the country's market, the newspaper reported.