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Hyundai and Kia will overhaul security measures in hundreds of thousands of autos as a part of a sweeping multistate settlement accusing the businesses of failing to put in industry-standard anti-theft expertise in lots of their fashions.
Underneath the settlement, the automakers should present free zinc-reinforced ignition cylinder protectors to present eligible homeowners, add engine immobilizers to all future U.S. autos and pay as much as $9 million in restitution to customers and collaborating states, Legal professional Common Matthew Platkin introduced Tuesday.
Almost 4 million Hyundai autos and three.1 million Kia autos within the U.S. will probably be eligible for the improve, and set up prices may exceed $500 million, in line with Reuters.
“For years, Hyundai and Kia deliberately failed to include industry-standard anti-theft technology in their vehicles, contributing to a nationwide spike in auto thefts. That ends now,” Platkin mentioned in a press release. “Today’s settlement is a key step in our ongoing efforts to prevent auto thefts — and to hold carmakers accountable for their shameful failure to take appropriate action to prevent auto thefts.”
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The brand of Hyundai Motor is pictured in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on April 15, 2025. (Kim Hong-Ji/REUTERS)
Hyundai and Kia omitted engine immobilizers — gadgets that stop a car from beginning and not using a good key — from hundreds of thousands of autos. In 2015, solely 26% of U.S. Kia and Hyundai autos had immobilizers, in contrast with 96% throughout different producers, the announcement said.
The shortage of immobilizers allowed automobile thieves to plot a “quick and simple” strategy to begin the automobiles and not using a key, a way that went viral in 2023 and fueled a spike in car thefts, in line with the announcement.
“Not only did the number of thefts explode, but many of the vehicles were used in connection with crimes and were involved in many traffic collisions,” the announcement famous.
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Kia on the Los Angeles Auto Present on the Los Angeles Conference Heart on Nov. 28, 2025. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Pictures)
“Today’s agreement is the latest in a series of steps that Kia has taken to support our customers who have been impacted by criminals using methods of theft popularized on social media to steal or attempt to steal certain vehicle models,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Kia has worked tirelessly to find new, creative, and — most importantly — effective ways to make these vehicles more difficult for criminals to steal beyond their already existing theft protections.”
Eligible customers will start receiving notices in early 2026 and could have till March 2027 to get the ignition cylinder protector put in at a dealership, Reuters reported.
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“For years, Hyundai and Kia deliberately failed to include industry-standard anti-theft technology in their vehicles, contributing to a nationwide spike in auto thefts,” Legal professional Common Matthew Platkin mentioned in a press release. (New Jersey OAG / Youtube)
The multistate settlement included greater than 30 states, and was led by Connecticut, Minnesota, New Hampshire, with New Jersey, California, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, and Washington as co-leads, in line with the announcement.
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Hyundai didn’t instantly reply to FOX Enterprise’ request for remark.
