Ministers currently have no legal grounds to block further sales of the buses.
Vehicles made by Chinese manufacturer Yutong could, in theory, be shut down remotely (Image: First Bus)
Security officials have raised concerns about hundreds of electric buses operating across major UK towns and cities. Investigators believe the vehicles made by Chinese manufacturer Yutong could, in theory, be shut down remotely, a scenario being described as a potential “kill switch”.
The buses rely on SIM cards to stay connected to the internet. These are normally used for maintenance checks and software updates, but UK agencies say the same technology could also leave them exposed. The issue was first flagged after warnings in Norway about remote access to Yutong bus batteries.
Around 700 Yutong buses are already in service in the UK (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) launched a review late last year.
Sources told The Telegraph that security teams found it was “technically possible” for the buses to be disabled from abroad, although they stressed that no evidence has been discovered of this ever happening.
A source familiar with the investigation told The Telegraph: “They haven’t found any evidence that it has actually happened.
“And there are wider considerations at play about how we deal with China, of which this is only a small part.”
Whitehall figures say ministers currently have no legal grounds to block further sales of the buses, and doing so without hard proof could inflame diplomatic tensions with Beijing.
Yutong, based in the city of Zhengzhou, is the world’s biggest exporter of electric buses (Image: Getty)
Even so, the findings have added to long-running questions about Chinese involvement in British infrastructure and transport networks.
Around 700 Yutong buses are already in service in the UK. Operators, including Stagecoach and First Bus, are thought to each run more than 200 of them.
Nottingham City Council recently confirmed it had switched its entire single-decker fleet to Yutong electric models and plans to do the same with double-deckers by the end of the year.
Concerns grew after Norway’s transport authority introduced new rules requiring firewalls on its Yutong buses to stop potential hacking attempts.
Similar warnings have been issued in Denmark and Australia, where the vehicles are also used.
Sources also told The Telegraph that most software updates on UK buses are carried out manually using cable connections, rather than wirelessly.
That reduces the risk but does not remove it entirely, according to officials monitoring the situation.
Yutong, based in the city of Zhengzhou, is the world’s biggest exporter of electric buses.
The company insists the vehicles cannot be remotely controlled because the internet-enabled systems are separate from the main driving functions, such as braking and steering.
Despite the concerns, the Government says work is under way to understand the scale of any risk.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We take security extremely seriously and are working closely across Government and with the transport sector to understand this issue and mitigate potential risks.”
