US Data Highlights Thieves’ Disinterest in EVs

Data collected by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has revealed that car thieves aren’t as interested in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) compared to conventional gas-powered cars. Of the more than one million cars stolen in the United States last year, few of them were electric, report experts from the NICB as well as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

An analysis of auto insurance claims by the IIHS revealed that electric cars comprised four of the six least-stolen cars. Furthermore, while 49 out of 100,000 insured vehicles are stolen annually, thieves stole just 1 out of every 100,000 insured Tesla Model 3s in 2023. Currently one of the most popular electric vehicles in the U.S. market, the Model 3 features a security system dubbed Sentry Mode that watches for external threats.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s analysis ranked cars with models from 2021 to 2023 and classified the number of vehicle thefts as a percentage of the total number of insured vehicles. The institute found that the Tesla Model Y and Model 3, as well as the Volvo XC90, GMC Acadia and Hyundai Tucson, had the lowest number of theft claims.

According to NICB public affairs specialist Nicholas Zeitlinger, this data indicates that electric vehicle thefts are still minute compared to diesel and gas-powered vehicles, even though the actual volume of EV thefts has risen. While experts aren’t sure exactly why thieves seem to be avoiding electric cars, some posit that their disinterest in EVs could be due to simple ignorance.

Battery electric vehicles represent a new age of vehicular transportation by combining software and hardware in novel and unprecedented ways. As such, EV technology is still new and often becomes quickly outdated as newer models are equipped with more modern and cutting-edge tech. As such, Zeitlinger notes, the technology in electric cars could be unfamiliar to thieves and thus more difficult to crack.

Many electric car models are also controlled via a keycard or mobile phone rather than a key, eliminating the key avenue that thieves have used to break into cars for decades. Furthermore, IIHS spokesperson Joe Young hypothesizes that electric vehicle owners likely experience fewer auto theft cases because they typically park their cars at home or in garages for charging, making them inaccessible to would-be car thieves.

Some of the smarter thieves may also be avoiding electric cars due to the vehicles’ GPS capabilities; most all-electric vehicles, and most modern cars for that matter, are embedded with GPS systems. However, Zeitlinger warns EV owners against being complacent about security as EVs are still highly valuable items.

Buyers can count the current low statistics of EV thefts as an extra motivator to acquire any of the models currently on the market, such as those from Lucid Motors (NASDAQ: LCID) and other manufacturers.

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