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The Enemy Within?

China's EVs are changing the world.

They're (relatively) cheap, cheerful, perform pretty well and aren't too hard on the eyes; well no harder than most modern cars.

Being able to sever our reliance on imported fossil fuel for our personal transport fleet seems to be a pretty good idea. The fact that over 85 percent of our own electricity is generated from renewables means the transition to EVs has immense potential to green-up our nation.

At least for the time-being (I won't remind you of the huge looming problem associated with millions of lithium-ion cells that will need to be dumped, starting in about a decade's time).

So EVs have never been cheaper or better, thanks to the wonderful nation of China, what could possibly be wrong with this?

Well we've all been warned about the security risks associated with Sino-tech.

The Five Eyes community has effectively outlawed the use of a lot of Sino-tech in our telecom networks, for fear that it will allow China to spy on our most sensitive communications through undetected back-door capabilities.

Huawei and a few other Chinese manufacturers are "verboten" by order of paranoia.

Now while I'm always somewhat of a skeptic when governments declare that we're under threat from the tech developed by a foreign power I am also willing to concede that such warnings are sometimes not without merit. However, I also believe that the risk is often wildly overstated.

A great example of this overstatement is the situation regarding Chinese drone maker DJI in the USA. The USA has effectively banned the importation of DJI equipment on allegations that it exposes the nation to unacceptable security risks because it might send data back to China.

DJI denies this and even filed (and lost) a lawsuit against the US government in an attempt to have this position overturned. As a result, millions of DJI drone owners in the USA are now unable to buy new craft or, in many cases, even have existing drones repaired.

But back to cars, and Chinese EVs in particular.

Once again the USA leads the world by adding such huge tariffs to these Sino-EVs that they are not the least bit competitive against domestic vehicles and imports from "friendly" countries. Once again the justification is that these cars pose a security threat.

Is that true?

Probably.

Modern cars, particularly EVs, are highly "connected". Many of them send telemetry data back to the manufacturer and receive "over the air updates" directly from the internet. Such vehicles are also liberally festooned with cameras and other technology that could quite easily be soaking up valuable and possibly sensitive data from the environment in which it operates.

Now you could argue that you have no problems with the CCP spending 12 hours a day looking at video footage of the inside of your garage but there are very real cases where having a mobile camera working for the Chinese Communist Party roaming the streets, businesses and perhaps even restricted locations is not such a clever idea.

Spying and data-collection is only one aspect of the risk that Chinese EVs may pose however.

If significant portions of the domestic transport fleet ends up being made in China and connected to servers in Shenzhen or Beijing we create a massive vulnerability.

Let's imagine that at some time in the not too distant future, China decides to expand its empire by annexing nations around the Pacific rim. How much of a strategic advantage they'd have if, with the flick of a switch, they could instantly disable a huge percentage of the EVs on our roads?

Even though the Teslas, VWs and other non-Sino EVs would still be working, negotiating motorways packed with dead BYDs would not be a simple task and huge numbers of Kiwis would be left with no way to get to or from work (or anywhere else).

Is this likely to happen?

I very much doubt it... but then again we've always been told "plan for the worst, hope for the best" and I think that's a really good idea when you're talking about something as crucial as our transport system.

Would I buy a Chinese EV?

Yes, if I could afford it (which I can't).

However, there's no way I'm giving up my 1994 Toyota pickup truck either because it's probably one of the last vehicles made which actually reliable, repairable and isn't totally dependent on an array of onboard computers and connectivity.

Carpe Diem folks!

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