Israeli Military Dumps Chinese Cars

2025-11-03 03:15:18

(MENAFN- Asia Times) Israel is dumping Chinese vehicles it bought for its senior officers and their families, a perk to support career retention in military service. Up to 700 vehicles, most of them manufactured by China's Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., will be replaced by early 2026.

The Chery cars from China are seen as a significant security risk. Attempts by Israel's cyber experts to mitigate the vehicle's vulnerabilities were unsuccessful.

The Israeli decision did not come out of the blue. Scrapping 700 modern cars at a cost of roughly $17 million is not something you do without cause. It is likely that Israel found some of its defense locations compromised and gathered enough intelligence to blame it on the Chery cars.

The Israeli ban follows a ban currently implemented in the United States. At the present time, Chery cars are not sold in the United States. There are no Chinese-branded passenger cars or trucks currently for sale in the United States, though several models built in China are sold here, such as the Lincoln Nautilus and Buick Envision. However, multiple Chinese automakers, including BYD, Nio, and Xpeng, are expected to enter the U.S., focusing on EVs and Hybrids.

All these vehicles will have connectivity back to Chinese-located servers and data aggregators.

The Chery models were purchased by the Israeli army starting in 2022. Most of them are Tiggo 8 Pro commercial vehicles. Such cars are priced around $25,000 in the Middle East, but fleet purchases likely reduce the cost significantly. It is also possible the purchases were tied to trade offsets.

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