"To steal a car a generation ago meant a bit of muscle and a tool or two. In fact, in 1992 alone, UK vehicle crime spiked and thieves stole 620,000 vehicles from our roads. Over time, car security has increased but the fight against car thieves is far from done.  Home Office figures show car theft has doubled since 2014 and motor theft insurance payouts were at their highest in seven years at the start of 2019, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

 

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The ABI said part of the blame for the increase in car insurance payouts is the rise in keyless vehicle crime—also known as ‘relay theft/attack’, where, the Master Locksmiths Association say; thieves can get into a car via a relay attack in just 20 seconds.  Campaigners and politicians are now appealing to car companies to improve security, particularly in keyless cars, which have the convenient feature of letting you open and start your car without the need to take your key out of your pocket or bag.

 

Thatcham Research, which carries out research and testing for vehicle safety and security systems, developed the New Vehicle Security Assessment (NVSA) to assess brand-new vehicles and influence insurance group ratings.  This year is the first time that Thatcham Research has made public their results.

 

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Thatcham Research gave five of the 11 models released in 2019 a ‘Poor’ security rating because their keyless entry/ignition, made them susceptible to relay theft.

Models that scored low on security:

 

Ford Mondeo
Hyundai Nexo
Kia ProCeed
Lexus UX
Toyota Corolla Hybrid

 

Without the keyless feature, Thatcham Research rated the overall security features as ‘Good’.

 

Original article here.

Car theft isn’t a ‘thing’ in Japan (and probably not Korea either) , it’s definitely a foreign concept they don’t engineer for.

I suspect that any stolen Hyundai Nexo in the UK will be the most recovered of stolen vehicles.

Traced easily by CCTV at Hydrogen filling stations.