Alarm in Europe over China-linked bus technology amid deepening security worries

Europe’s public transport networks are facing an unusual security scare, and it has nothing to do with terrorism or fuel shortages. Instead, authorities in Denmark and Norway are worried that parts of their bus fleets could, in theory, be switched off from thousands of miles away, NBC News reported.

The trigger is China. More precisely, a growing anxiety over the dependence on Chinese-built electric buses and the software that controls them. Operators across Scandinavia have launched urgent reviews after discovering that their vehicles, manufactured by Yutong, have remote digital access capabilities that some fear could be misused in a geopolitical crisis.

These concerns have unsettled a region that normally prides itself on quiet, well-run infrastructure. Officials say they are now racing to plug what they describe as a potential “security loophole”.

A vulnerability hidden in plain sight

The issue erupted earlier this month when Ruter, a major Norwegian transport operator, disclosed test findings comparing buses made by China’s Yutong and the Netherlands’ VDL.

The results were stark. VDL’s buses lacked any feature for autonomous software updates. Yutong’s, by contrast, had what the Norwegians called “direct digital access” for updates and diagnostics. In theory, they concluded, this meant the vehicles could be stopped or disabled remotely — by the manufacturer or anyone able to compromise the system.

In Denmark, the alarm spread quickly. Movia, which runs 262 Yutong buses in Copenhagen and eastern Denmark, publicly acknowledged the risk. Jeppe Gaard, its chief operating officer, explained the issue simply: if a vehicle can receive remote updates, it can also be shut down remotely.Gaard added that this was not a Yutong-specific flaw. “Electric buses, like electric cars, in principle can be remotely deactivated if their software systems have online access,” he told NBC News. It is, he noted, a challenge affecting all modern vehicles built with always-connected electronics.

Yutong insists on compliance

Yutong, the world’s largest bus manufacturer by sales, has rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing. Responding to the Scandinavian investigations, the company said it follows all relevant laws and industry standards.

It also clarified that data for customers in the European Union is stored on servers run by Amazon Web Services in Frankfurt, where it is encrypted. For now, that reassurance has not fully quietened the debate.

Geopolitical backdrop

This sudden scrutiny of Chinese buses comes as Europe is reassessing its exposure to Chinese technology across multiple sectors.

In recent years, several European governments have stripped Huawei and ZTE equipment from their 5G networks after US pressure and concerns over espionage. The fear now is that electric vehicles pose a similar risk — mobile machines that depend on software which, in certain circumstances, could be exploited.