PARIS, Feb. 5 (Xu Qingru) According to the latest ranking published by the automotive magazine Auto Plus on February 4, Japan's hybrid car will become the most popular target model for French thieves in 2021, and the Toyota PRIUS will top the list.
According to French TV station BFMTV, there is not even a Japanese car brand on the list of the most stolen cars in the previous year, but in the past 2021, the hybrid Toyota Prius has surpassed the previous year, and the DS 7 Crossback SUV and Renault Megane RS, which are also hybrid or electric vehicles, have become the most stolen car models.
The magazine analyzed data from nine insurance companies, and the Toyota Prius topped the list with 227 thefts per 10,000 insured cars.
While hybrid vehicles are popular with more and more customers, they also attract the attention of thieves. The magazine explained that because the catalytic converter of the hybrid car contains rare metals platinum, palladium, rhodium, etc., the price has soared in the current market, and thieves have stolen this part and sold it.
The magazine advised owners to park against a wall or into a garage to prevent thieves from stealing the part, and Toyota to mark the catalyst so that thieves could be tracked.
Number two on last year's list was still number one and two last year, with the DS 7 Crossback SUV and the Renault Megane RS. The flaws in the start-up systems of both models have been criticized, and stealing cars is fairly easy for thieves with a little hacking skills.
In contrast, luxury car brands do a good job of electronic protection, and thieves are not so easy to get started.
Although the number of car thefts declined in 2020 due to the lockdown due to the epidemic, and last year it remained stable without a significant increase, there are still more than 120,000 cars stolen, that is to say, nearly 336 cars are stolen every day, an average of 14 per hour.
On this list, despite the relatively small number of thefts, these models are also on the list: Renault Clio 4, Renault Megana 4, Peugeot 3008 SUV, Toyota CH-R, DS3, Peugeot 208, Smart Fortwo and Logo 308, among others.
One of the trends in car theft last year was that more and more cases began to steal parts of vehicles than the whole vehicle was stolen. This is likely to be one of the important reference factors for insurance companies to adjust the price of insurance contracts.
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Wen | Xu Qingru