AG Ellison announces $500M settlement with Kia and Hyundai

Car manufacturers Kia and Hyundai have reached an estimated $500 million settlement over selling cars without industry standard anti-theft technology.

“By failing to include industry-standard anti-theft technology in their vehicles, Hyundai and Kia unleashed a wave of auto thefts that cost Minnesotans their cars, their hard-earned money and sometimes even their lives,” Ellison stated in a news release. “In short, they put their profits ahead of people’s safety.”

Without the standard technology, car thieves quickly devised a simple way to access these vehicles’ ignition cylinders to start cars without a key and shared the how-to on social media, leading to a drastic increase in Kia and Hyundai vehicles throughout the nation.

In 2022, more than 3,200 Hyundais and Kias were stolen in the Twin Cities.

“The manufacturer’s lack of urgency and their desire to save money inexcusably prolonged this crisis,” stated Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara in the release.

Ellison led a bipartisan coalition of 35 state's attorneys general in the lawsuit after an initial investigation into the carmakers in 2023.

Hyundai and Kia will offer free hardware fixes for affected vehicles, with notices expected to be issued in the new year. Hyundai and Kia owners will have one year from receipt of notice to have the fix installed.

The settlement also includes paying restitution to consumers whose cars were damaged by thieves, defraying the costs of the states' investigations, as well as equipping all future vehicles with the industry’s standard of engine immobilizing anti-theft technology.