‘Undeniable’: The Many Security Risks of Chinese EVs as Canada Opens Its Markets

Jan 20, 2026 - 11:00 Updated: Jan 20, 2026 - 10:56

‘Undeniable’: The Many Security Risks of Chinese EVs as Canada Opens Its Markets

News Analysis

As Canada moves to slash tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, a growing number of reports and researchers are warning about security risks and the potential for espionage by the Chinese Communist Party through these vehicles.

When asked for evidence to support his concerns about the security risks posed by Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), Ontario Premier Doug Ford pointed to the fact that everyone who accompanied Prime Minister Mark Carney to China, including Canadian reporters, was instructed to use burner phones for security reasons.

“When the prime minister and his team are over there, they use burner phones. You’re making a deal with a country with burner phones?” Ford told reporters on Jan. 19.

“The prime minister did mention when he got elected that the number one country for national security threat is China. We know when you hook up your phone, they are going to be listening, simple as that. Anyone who doesn’t believe that is very, very naive.”

There have been multiple reports outlining security risks with Chinese EVs, and some governments have barred them near sensitive areas due to security concerns.

Such was the case last year in Israel, where the military reportedly recalled Chinese cars issued to senior officers, according to local media.

A 2024 report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies says that the “risk from cars connected to China is undeniable.” The report warns that conversations inside the car could be recorded and sent to another location. As well, the vehicles could provide foreign powers access to the power grid when recharging.

“Using connected cars for spying is just an extension of mass surveillance of communications, something at which China and others excel,” the report says.

The Biden administration launched a probe into Chinese-made EVs in February 2024, citing concerns about the vehicles potentially collecting Americans’ personal information and posing a threat to U.S. national security.

“These cars are connected to our phones, to navigation systems, to critical infrastructure, and to the companies that made them,” then-U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement in 2024.

Current U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said rules adopted by the United States in January 2025 on internet-connected vehicles and navigation systems pose a significant impediment to Chinese EVs in the U.S. market. He said it would be “hard” for Chinese companies to comply with the U.S. rules and regulations on cybersecurity.

During his visit to China last week, Carney struck a deal with Beijing to cut tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6.1 percent from the current 100 percent rate for the first 49,000 vehicles, in exchange for lower Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola and other agricultural and seafood products until the end of the year or longer.

“It is expected that within three years, this agreement will drive considerable new Chinese joint-venture investment in Canada with trusted partners to protect and create new auto manufacturing careers for Canadian workers, and ensure a robust build-out of Canada’s EV supply chain,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Prime Minister Mark Carney holds a press conference in Ritan Park in Beijing, China, on Jan. 16, 2026. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Espionage and Data-Security Concerns

Meanwhile, the European Council on Foreign Relations issued a warning in January 2024 that the security risks posed by Chinese-made EVs are greater in many respects than China’s 5G networks and are more challenging to resolve.

Shiow-Wen Wang, assistant research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute of National Defense and Security Research, previously told The Epoch Times that EVs are often equipped with a large number of sensors or radar-like devices, which may gather intelligence on the areas the vehicles pass through.

The Swedish National China Centre also raised security concerns about Chinese EVs in a 2024 report, saying data including user profiles, geographic data, driving behaviour, and personal information such as voice commands and data from synced smartphones can be collected and potentially shared with the vehicle manufacturer, affiliates, insurance companies, and government agencies.

“The most pressing issue is probably that the constant collection of data which is sent back to China might allow the Chinese government to use EVs abroad for intelligence gathering, including for spying on individuals and mapping patterns of movement and physical locations, as well as using collected data for training military-grade AI and other applications,” the report says.

Janka Oertel, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said in a 2024 report that electric vehicles collect data to train artificial intelligence for automated driving, including driver and passenger behaviour and sensors that track the surroundings, and who controls these data flows and software updates may “encroach on matters of national security.”

She said that while some China watchers and parliamentarians have begun to raise questions about the cybersecurity aspects of controlled and automated vehicles, “a broader debate” on the issues of consumer protection, targeted surveillance, and large-scale espionage through car microphones, cameras, and sensors is “still lacking.”

The Center for Internet Security, a Washington-based think tank, said that Beijing-owned apps “pose a threat” to users due to China’s ability to “leverage these apps for data collection and malign influence operations.”

The center’s 2024 report refers to China’s “Made in China 2025” plan, launched in 2015, in which Chinese leader Xi Jinping identified the control of data as “a key to the nation’s ambitions.” Additionally, the Chinese Communist Party’s Digital Silk Road plan, also launched in 2015, aims to increase China’s exportation of surveillance technologies and digital infrastructure to developing countries, the report said.

Ben Wilkens, a cybersecurity principal engineer at the Virginia-based National Motor Freight Traffic Association Inc., said in a 2025 report that many of the technologies adopted to enhance efficiency and safety in the trucking industry, such as electronic logging devices and dashcams, come with “unseen cybersecurity risks” and potential national security security implications when those devices are Chinese-made products.

“While price always matters, it is critical that procurement decisions include security and supply chain stability along with pricing,” Wilkens wrote. He said that while many Chinese devices and components are “financially appealing” and are often readily available in volume, depending on these devices can present security concerns due to “direct cybersecurity vulnerabilities,” and could lead to data exposure to Chinese controlled entities.

An unnamed Chinese hacker uses a computer at an office in Dongguan, in China's southern Guangdong Province, on Aug. 4, 2020. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

Security Warnings

The development comes as Canadian intelligence and security agencies, along with those of allied nations, regularly warn of the security risks posed by China.

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, together with U.S., Australian, New Zealand, and UK cyber security agencies, released a 2024 joint advisory on Chinese state-sponsored actors “compromising and maintaining persistent access to U.S. critical infrastructure.”

The advisory said Chinese state-sponsored cyber actors “are seeking to pre-position for disruptive or destructive cyber attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure in the event of a major crisis or conflict with the United States.”

The advisory also said cyber threat actors “abuse” native tools and processes on systems in multiple IT environments, conducting their operations “discreetly” by camouflaging their activity with typical system and network behaviour.

Meanwhile, as Ottawa says it is also welcoming Chinese EV manufacturers to locate their manufacturing in Canada, U.S.-based China analyst Gordon Chang warned that the Chinese Communist Party will use the plants to “base agents, operatives, and soldiers” in Canada.

The final report of a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada said last year that China is the most active foreign power meddling in Canada’s affairs.

Jon Sun, Matthew Horwood, Michael Zhuang, and Reuters contributed to this report.