SUVs, hybrids: these cars that thieves especially target

A hybrid SUV less than three years old, this is the sketch of one of the most coveted models by car thieves last year. According to the 2024 Theft Observatory prepared by Coyote (and, therefore, based on vehicles equipped with its anti-theft protection solutions) and presented this Thursday, 62% of thefts occur in off-road vehicles.

And hybrid models are among those with the highest loss rate (the risk of being stolen), with 4.3 stolen vehicles per 1,000 vehicles. A photo that corroborates the list of the most stolen vehicles revealed a few weeks ago by Autoplus magazine, where the Toyota RAV4 was the most popular vehicle among thieves.

Burglaries increase in apartments until now less affected

Like the Ministry of the Interior, which found a 5% increase in vehicle theft in 2023, Coyote recorded strong thief activity in the second part of the year. For example, in December there were a higher number of flights than in December 2019, before Covid.

This increase in thefts occurs especially in the departments that have been less affected until now. Thus, thefts increased by 20% in Aube, Calvados, Landes, Eure-et-Loire, Indre and even Morbihan.

According to Stéphane Curtelin, marketing director at Coyote, the increasing presence of electronics in vehicles explains this rising trend among increasingly tech-savvy thieves. “We deal with organized sectors, so the most stolen models are also the most sold as new vehicles, because they are the most in demand for second-hand vehicles,” summarizes Stéphane Curtelin.

A geolocation technology based on waves…

A specialist in driver assistance boxes in the early 2010s, Coyote diversified into security in 2018, with its Coyote Secure department, after the acquisition of the company Traqueur, specialized in geolocation.

Currently, 400,000 vehicles are equipped with a small Coyote box in France and the group has just launched its offer in Belgium and Spain. Installed in the vehicle in a location unknown to the user (a dozen covers are possible), this small box the size of a packet of tissues is based on technology developed in-house. Almost 120 engineers work on the group’s different products. It is thanks to the different wave networks that the stolen vehicle equipped with the box can be geolocated.

“First, wave technologies with high points to delimit the area (GSM, GPS). Then the detective goes to the place, uses another type of waves, with a remote control that he has in his hands, to get closer and therefore the intensity.” The sign guides you to find the vehicles underground,” explains Stéphane Curtelin.

The use of waves allows you to find vehicles even hidden in a parking lot or in a container. “We still have a third of the vehicles temporarily stored underground,” he explains.

…and a team of researchers

Researchers are the other specificity of Coyote’s offer. His number and identity remain secret. These are often former members of the police, who work in collaboration with the latter, always within the framework of a complaint, and allow them to recover the vehicle.

Teamwork, as one police officer explains to us: “Colleagues who investigate these cases, who are often at the highest levels of the criminal spectrum, need qualified people or experts with the authorization of the judge. This, of course, refers These cutting-edge technologies are necessary to help solve investigations into organized crime, which generally (almost systematically) has ramifications abroad.

Theft of parts for resale abroad, Coyote ensures that finding a vehicle equipped with the tracker often allows others to be geolocated. “During an intervention we found a equipped motorcycle, it was with others in a van, it itself was stolen,” explains one of the investigators.

Last year, Coyote claims to have recovered €43 million worth of vehicles. 91% of the vehicles were found in 48 hours.