Car Theft Is Still F$#king Crazy In Canada

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I don’t always get things right.

Last year, I wrote about how car theft in Canada was fucking crazy.

That same week, news came out that car theft had declined in the country during the first half of 2024.

Queue the sad tuba.

I was still new at this newsletter writing game. And I second-guessed myself. I considered writing a retraction, an apology.

Then I said to myself, fuck it.

It might be down, but car theft was still fucking crazy. So I let the piece stand.

Now, in 2025, car theft is down again.

This is good news.

However, like last year, it isn’t as good as you might think.

Our 2025 numbers put us just above the then record high number of thefts in 2021.

This drops Canada from the top of the top ten countries with the highest rate of vehicle-related thefts to the bottom of the top ten list, where we were circa 2022.

What’s clear is that Canada hit a vehicle theft crisis point in 2023. It cost consumers and insurance companies billions of dollars and set law enforcement spiralling.

That crisis prompted some reasonable responses.

The federal government of Canada put together a “National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft.”

Law enforcement got more focused on the problem.

And that worked.

There was the Peel Regional Police’s shutdown of a $4M auto-theft ring near Pearson airport.

There was the Hamilton police’s Project Polar Bear that took down another auto theft ring.

There was the Halton police’s Project Mulligan, where police arrested eight suspects who were stealing high-end vehicles parked near Toronto area hotels.

There was a months-long probe into an “organized crime auto theft network” by Durham police that led to the arrest of 11 Quebec residents believed to be responsible for the theft of 38 vehicles valued at more than $2.5 million.

There was the Ontario Provincial Police’s success with Project Fairfield. That operation resulted in 23 arrests and the recovery of 138 stolen vehicles worth $9.1 million.

Further assistance came from an unlikely source.

The Donald and his obsession with the minuscule flow of fentanyl from Canada into the US has resulted in the deployment of surveillance black hawk helicopters, extra canine teams, and plans to station 10,000 “frontline personnel” at the Canada-US border.

Although Canada’s border plan might not be doing much to convince The Donald not to increase tariffs, it has resulted in a reduction in stolen vehicles being transported out of the country.

At the same time, vehicle theft continues, and the criminals are getting more brazen.

Some vehicles are being stolen from dealerships.

Others are being taken straight from OEM factory lots.

A man was run over in his own driveway last year in broad daylight when a woman stole his Porsche.

Crime rings have enlisted government employees to perpetrate revinning schemes.

And even Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, witnessed four thugs attempt to steal his car from his home. (Maybe Dougie should ride his bike more.)

Yep, car theft is down in Canada. But it is still fucking crazy.

If you own a Toyota Highlander, you may want to consider adding a motion sensor light security camera combo outside your home, get yourself a classic club steering wheel lock, and keep an AirTag in your glove box.

Cause that AirTag might be the only thing that lets you locate your vehicle when it ends up on the other side of the planet.

Huawei’s Aito unveils new M7 with larger dimensions and EREV/EV options. carnewschina.com

The new BYD Atto 2 launched in Hong Kong on Friday with prices starting under $22,000, or about 30% cheaper than Tesla’s most affordable model. electrek.co

China’s car sales growth slowed in July, partly due to weaker demand for hybrids. Sales rose 6.9% from July 2024 to 1.85 million cars, down from an 18.6% year-on-year increase in June, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed on Friday. reuters.com

Tesla lands $2.7 billion deal with Georgia Power to deploy a 3-gigawatt Megapack battery energy storage solution. The deal is one of the largest of its kind in the US. driveteslacanada.ca

Tesla board awards Elon $29 billion in shares while he waits for the courts to decide if he will ever get his prior $56 billion pay package. cnbc.com

Tesla battery supplier Panasonic calls solid-state batteries a ‘niche’. ft.com

Tesla and Elon were sued by shareholders who accused them of securities fraud for concealing the significant risk and danger that the company’s self-driving vehicles, including the Robotaxi, might pose. reuters.com

Tesla is disbanding its Dojo team, and its department head will leave the company, upending the automaker’s effort to build an in-house supercomputer for developing driverless-vehicle technology. bloomberg.com

All Teslas are now capable of bidirectional vehicle-to-home charging (V2X) thanks to a Powerwall competitor, Sigenergy. electrek.co

The US military found a good use for Tesla Cybertrucks: target practice. theverge.com

A new robot store has opened in Beijing, selling everything from mechanical butlers to human-like replicas of Albert Einstein. bbc.com

The US Transportation Department is proposing new rules to speed deployment of drones beyond the visual line of sight of operators, a change needed to advance commercial uses like package deliveries. reuters.com

OpenMind is building a software layer, OM1, for humanoid robots that acts as an operating system. The company compares itself to being the Android for robotics because its software is open and hardware agnostic. techcrunch.com

Leveraging AI tech in humanoid robots remains a key challenge for the sector, according to Unitree’s CEO Wang Xingxing. bloomberg.com

Residential batteries help support California’s grid in a record-setting distributed electricity test. electrek.co

The Donald’s administration plans to terminate $7 billion in federal grants intended to help low-income and moderate-income families install solar panels on their homes. nytimes.com

The EU and China have agreed to work together to accelerate the development and deployment of green energy tech and reaffirmed their support for the Paris Climate Agreement, which The Donald’s administration has withdrawn from. forbes.com

The government of Ontario, working with Alberta and Saskatchewan, wants to explore the feasibility of a new west-east pipeline to bring western oil and gas to southern Ontario refineries and ports. cbc.ca

Acura teases its first EV. theverge.com, caranddriver.com, electrek.co

Toyota adjusts its annual profit forecast by over $4 billion as it reckons with The Donald’s bullshit tariffs. cnbc.com

Amazon is expanding its online car-shopping platform to include used and certified pre-owned vehicles. autonews.com

GM engineers drove a Silverado EV over 1,000 miles on a single charge. thedrive.com

GM and Hyundai are making an electric van for the US market. theverge.com

Nissan begins talks with local union to cut jobs at its European office. reuters.com

Fiat officially unveiled the facelifted Toro pickup truck for the South American market. carscoops.com

Rivian is working on a steer-by-wire system. electrek.co

Rivian has filed a lawsuit in Ohio, the heart of it all, seeking to sell its electric vehicles directly to folks in the state. techcrunch.com

Foxconn sells the GM factory it acquired from Lordstown to a mystery buyer after failing to make EVs itself. techcrunch.com

The mystery buyer might be Softbank, which wants to use the facility to house its Stargate AI data centre with OpenAI and Oracle. bloomberg.com

A group of United Auto Workers members is seeking to oust President Shawn Fain ahead of an election next year, citing frustration with his leadership. bloomberg.com

Teen learns the hard way how much he was fucked over by an Alabama dealership. motor1.com

July saw big battery vehicles take a record 98.2% share in Norway. BEVs alone took a 97.2% share, a new record high. cleantechnica.com

The Donald wants to see more pick-up trucks on the streets in the EU and Japan. Good luck with that, Don. reuters.com

Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, met privately with The Donald to make a case he did not want to hear: the auto industry he said he wants to save is being hurt by his bullshit tariffs. ctvnews.ca

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