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| Chinese electric cars in Europe. (Source: Automobile News Europe) |
Importing electric cars from China to help meet its net zero emissions target would allow Beijing to spy on British citizens, UK ministers warned on August 5.
The warning comes as the issue of net zero emissions has emerged as a key bone of contention between the Conservatives and Labour, with some Tory MPs calling on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to take a more cautious approach to meeting the 2050 target.
At the same time, car companies now face a target of selling zero-emission products from 2024, before the UK government imposes a ban on petrol and diesel cars by 2030. So China is expected to dominate the UK market thanks to its ability to provide cheap electric cars.
However, sources within the UK government have raised concerns that the technology inside these vehicles could be used to collect huge amounts of information, including location data, audio recordings and video footage, and is vulnerable to remote interference and even disabling.
“If you import electric cars made in a country like China, how can you be sure they are not being used to collect information and data?” a senior government official told The Telegraph .
Or “If we have electric cars made by countries that have used technology for spying, why don’t they do the same here?”.
Clearly, with China emerging as a global powerhouse in battery-powered electric vehicles, the prospect of a wave of cars from the country flooding into the UK has now raised concerns about the security implications.
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