How a car is stolen without its key
Modern Kias and Hyundais use keyless entry: the car detects the key nearby, unlocks, and starts at the push of a button. Thieves have found a way round it that does not need the key at all.
A handheld device, often disguised as a games console and sold openly online, is held near the door handle. It intercepts the signal the car sends when it looks for the key, works out the response the car expects, and sends it back. The car unlocks and starts as if the key were present. The whole process takes seconds, and it works whether your key is in a drawer, a Faraday pouch or another building.
This is not a relay attack, where thieves amplify the signal from a key near the front door. Keeping your key away from the car does not stop it.
Which cars are affected
The method has been used on Kia and Hyundai models built on the group’s recent platforms, including the EV6, Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6. Kia has said that EV6 vehicles built from 2024 onwards received hardware and software changes to counter it. Kia’s public statement referred to February 2024; Kia UK has told at least one dealer the change applies from April 2024. If you own an earlier car, Kia’s position is that the changes cannot be applied to it.
What Kia has said
Kia UK’s response, given through a dealer in October 2026, was that it builds vehicles to the security standards available at the time of build, that not every security measure can be applied retrospectively, and that older vehicles can be made more secure using third-party devices such as steering wheel locks.
Is it really unfixable?
Kia’s position is that its own hardware and software changes cannot be applied to earlier cars. That is not the same as saying nothing can be done.
Hyundai, which shares the platform and the weakness, has offered Ioniq 5 owners an optional security upgrade for £49. An aftermarket CAN-bus immobiliser such as the Autowatch Ghost, which blocks the car from being driven until a PIN is entered on the car’s own buttons, is quoted by installers at around £499 fitted and would have stopped every theft described on this site from being driven away. It does not stop a thief getting in. If a consumer can buy that protection for £499, the question for Kia is why it was not offered to owners of affected cars, at a price that a manufacturer buying in volume could surely have bettered.
Kia’s answer to date has been a steering wheel lock. The owner who started this site fitted one after his EV6 was stolen in September 2026. Three weeks later the thieves came back, started the car without the key again, and removed the lock by cutting through the steering wheel with a hacksaw.
[Add photo here: the cut steering wheel.]
The scale
The numbers are not in dispute. Across all cars in the UK, Ford Fiestas are stolen in the greatest numbers and Lexus models at the highest rate, so this site does not claim Kia is the most stolen brand overall. For electric cars, and for these models in particular, the figures are stark:
- In 2024, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 was the UK’s most stolen electric car (223 of 15,964 on the road, 1.3%), the Kia Niro EV second and the Kia EV6 third (169 of 15,670, 1%). Kia was the most stolen EV brand with 469 thefts, Hyundai second with 345. Solera Cap HPI data via EV Powered
- DVLA data for 2024 puts the Kia EV6 twelfth of all models for the proportion stolen: 174 of 17,006 registered, or one in 98. Loop analysis via Regit
- Over the three years to 2025, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (16.5 per 1,000) and Kia EV6 (15.2 per 1,000) had the second and third highest theft rates of any model with 5,000 or more registrations, behind only the Lexus RX. DVLA FOI data via Fleetalyse
- In 2022, one Ioniq 5 was reported stolen in the UK and no EV6s. In 2023 the figures were 96 and 91. The thefts began when the emulator device became available. DVLA FOI data via Fleet News
| Thefts reported in the UK | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 | 1 | 96 | 223 |
| Kia EV6 | 0 | 91 | 169 |
In the United States, where a different weakness in older Kias and Hyundais led to a wave of thefts, the companies settled class actions worth more than $200 million. Hagens Berman