Your EV’s Best Feature Is Making It 5x Easier to Steal

A keyless EV system is designed for convenience, but it may also expose your car to electronic theft — discover how criminals exploit relay attacks in seconds and the simple precautions that can help protect your car.

EV Relay Attack: A nighttime keyless-entry theft scenario showing the vulnerability. Image created by the author using Canva.

You didn't hear a window smash, and your car alarm never went off. Yet, when you walked out to your driveway that morning, your $60,000 electric vehicle was gone.

No broken glass. No damaged door. No obvious sign of a struggle.

In less than a minute, a thief may have exploited the wireless communication between your key fob and your car, tricking the vehicle into believing the key was nearby. The very feature that made your EV convenient had become a potential security weakness.

The frightening part? You might have been asleep just a few feet away.

This is the risk behind keyless car theft, a technique that can affect electric vehicles and gasoline-powered cars equipped with vulnerable passive keyless entry systems.

But there's good news. One inexpensive precaution can help protect against a particular type of electronic attack. It takes seconds to use, requires no…