From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

Chinese electric cars imported to the UK to help hit net zero targets will enable Beijing to spy on British citizens, ministers have warned.

With car companies facing quotas for zero emissions sales from next year ahead of a ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles in 2030, China is predicted to dominate the UK market because of its prowess in providing cheap electric cars.

However, sources at the heart of government have raised concerns that technology embedded in the vehicles could be used to harvest huge amounts of information, including location data, audio recordings and video footage, while also being vulnerable to remote interference and even being disabled.

Meanwhile, a cross-party group of MPs warned the Government that Britain is poised to cede control of the “critical infrastructure” of its car market to Beijing “with all the attendant security risks”.

It comes as net zero has emerged as a key battleground between the Conservatives and Labour, with some Tory MPs urging Rishi Sunak to take a more cautious approach to achieving the overall 2050 target.

With China emerging as a global force in battery electric vehicles, the prospect of a deluge of cars from the country entering the UK has now raised fears about security implications.

A senior government source told The Telegraph: “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?

“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?”

The source added: “It will be used with all of the data that they collect, and that’s how it becomes incredibly valuable and quite dangerous.”

One minister said that they shared the concerns about remote surveillance and interference. “That is the world we’re going into,” they said.

In 2020, the Government banned the Chinese firm Huawei from the UK’s 5G networks, with a deadline to strip out all the company’s existing kit by the end of 2027.

Dame Priti Patel, the former home secretary, said Chinese surveillance in cars was a similar threat. “These are realistic risks,” she said. “All we have to do is look at how government tied themselves up with things such as 5G.”

The concerns have been exacerbated by the rapid penetration of Chinese cars into the UK market.

Speaking to MPs last month, Chris Stark the chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, an independent advisory body, said that while Germany was currently the biggest supplier of cars to the UK, “China is rapidly moving into second place and shows every sign of taking the top spot”.

The Telegraph can also reveal that UK-based car manufacturers could end up effectively having to subsidise cheaper Chinese imports if they fail to meet targets for phasing out petrol engine sales.

Under proposals being consulted on for a zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate, 22 per cent of companies’ new car sales in 2024 will have to be zero emission models, with the proportion rising to 80 per cent by 2030.

If manufacturers fail to hit the target, they will have to either pay fines or buy “credits” from companies that exceed the target, with Chinese electric car companies and Chinese-sourced Teslas expected to benefit in particular.

Concerns about the security threat arising from a potential Chinese domination of the UK car market are likely to strengthen calls for the ZEV mandate to be watered down. Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, is understood to have raised concerns with Cabinet colleagues about the policy’s wider impact.

UK members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international cross-party alliance, have warned that without urgent action the British car industry risks being “undercut to the point of extinction” by China.

In a statement signed by Conservative MPs Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Craig Mackinlay, Tim Loughton and Bob Seely, and by Labour’s Sarah Champion and the SNP’s Stewart McDonald, the group said the UK was “sleep-walking” into being “catastrophically undercut”.
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