Basically, anyone with a USB cable and a screwdriver could steal various Hyundai and Kia vehicles produced between 2010 and 2021 without an immobilizer fitted.
Kia and Hyundai were extremely late in making the basic security feature standard. Hyundai Group has already taken big financial hits over the controversy in recent years, but now there's a new settlement. Hyundai and Kia must offer free repairs to millions of models, and it could cost the company over $500 million, according to the Associated Press.
Cost Cutting Can Be Expensive
Kia and Hyundai not making basic antitheft technology standard to save money has come back to bite the conglomerate in a big way. Essentially, an immobilizer on a car requires a matching code in the key or Smart Key fob and the system to start the vehicle. Various countries, including Germany and the UK, have required them to be installed in new vehicles at the factory since 1998.
Hyundai and Kia tried to address the security flaw with a software patch for cars that could be patched. They also offered steering wheel locks to owners of affected vehicles – security devices that are now nostalgic items for older car enthusiasts. As a result of all this, the Hyundai Elantra was the most stolen car in America in 2024.
Minnesota was particularly unhappy about the problem, and drew together 35 states, including California, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, to take legal action, arguing that the vehicles weren’t equipped with proper anti-theft technology, leaving them wide open to theft. At the trend's height, Minneapolis reported an 836% increase in Hyundai and Kia thefts over the course of just one year.
The fix will be for Kia and Hyundai to install a zinc sleeve over the vehicle’s ignition cylinder to stop thieves from cracking it open. According to the report, eligible customers will have one year from the date of the companies’ notice to get the repair at an authorized dealership. The automakers are also required to outfit all future vehicles sold in the US with an engine immobilizer and pay up to $4.5 million of restitution to people whose vehicles were damaged by thieves.
“Kia is eager to continue working with law enforcement officers and officials at federal, state, and local levels to combat criminal car theft, and the role social media has played in encouraging it, and we remain fully committed to upholding vehicle security,” the company said. Separately, Hyundai stated that: “We will continue to take meaningful action to support our customers and ensure peace of mind.”
Effects Of TheCause
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison brought a man whose car was stolen nine times to the press conference announcing the legal result. As if that isn't crazy enough, it was stolen seven times after the previous software fix, and the Monday night before Ellison spoke to the press. More tragically, also present was a woman whose mother was killed when a stolen Kia crashed into her parents' vehicle.
“This crisis that we’re talking about today started in a boardroom, traveled through the internet and ended up in tragic results when somebody stole those cars."
– Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison
