Warnings that Chinese-built EVs could be used as weapons has got TGTV’s Sam Philip thinking
When is a broken down electric car not a broken down electric car? When it’s a potent weapon of geopolitical warfare!
That’s according to Professor Jim Saker, president of the Institute of the Motor Industry, who recently issued the stark warning that Chinese-built EVs could be used by Beijing to destabilise the UK economy. Saker cautioned that hundreds of thousands of EVs could contain spyware allowing them to be immobilised remotely by officials in China, causing British roads to grind to a standstill. He described Chinese EVs as potential ‘Trojan horses’: quite the terrifying image, until you remember they’d be Trojan horses filled with confused pensioners rather than bloodthirsty Greek soldiers.
Other industry figures have dismissed Saker’s warnings as ‘hysterical’, pointing out it’s not only Chinese EVs but pretty much every modern car that has the potential to be disabled remotely, which maybe isn’t the reassurance the British public was seeking.
Certainly, as Bond villain plans go, it’s at the mundane end of the scale. (“When I push this button, Bond, all hell shall be unleashed!” “Blofeld, you’re a monster. What does it do? Flip Earth’s gravity upside-down? “Even worse, Bond! It causes a bunch of mid-sized electric hatchbacks to slow gently to a halt!”)
But if conked out cars really are potential weapons of mass disruption, this raises some big, serious questions. Questions like: how, as a driver, are you meant to know whether you’re experiencing a minor drivetrain blip, or the beginning of World War 3? (“Darling, we’re losing power! This is it! Xi Jinping’s given the signal! Crack out the ration packs and the Lugers, we’re at war! Ah hang on, hold fire, just knocked it into neutral...”)
And if our nation’s hard shoulders are indeed the new theatre o
