2023 saw new growth invehicle thefts in Italy: +7%. From 2013 to today, 1 million 550 thousand vehicles have been stolen: only 609 thousand have been found, traces of almost 940 thousand have been lost, routed to foreign markets or cannibalized and used to fuel the black market in spare parts. At a European level, our country is second only to France, where however thefts are significantly decreasing. In all other EU member states, less than 40,000 vehicles are stolen per year. Meanwhile, the threat of hackers is gaining ground and sees more and more vehicles hit by attacks that put the safety and privacy of the driver at risk.
These are the main trends that emerge from the ‘Dossier on vehicle theft 2024’, developed by LoJack Italia, a Calamp Group company leader in automotive telematics solutions and in the recovery of stolen vehicles, which collected and analyzed the data provided by the Ministry of the Interior on 2023 and integrated them with those coming from national and international calculations and reports on the phenomenon.
Vehicle thefts on the rise
Last year there was a clear new growth in vehicle thefts (+7% vs 2022), which reached 131,679 units in our country. The increase affected practically all categories of vehicles, cars/SUVs, motorbikes/scooters. An even more significant increase specifically concerned motor vehicles (+11%), which returned close to 100 thousand thefts per year, while motor vehicles recorded only a slight increase (+2%). The percentage of vehicles recovered and returned to their rightful owner following the theft remains well under half of the total stolen, at 44%. The data confirms the difficulties in combating this crime and how these activities are today the prerogative of real holding companies for the sale and/or disassembly of stolen vehicles, capable of acting very promptly and routing the vehicles or individual disassembled components along the Balkan routes of Eastern Europe or towards North Africa and even in the Middle East.
From post-Covid onwards, this criminal business has experienced a phase of continuous growth, such as to increase the alert level recorded especially in some areas of our country, especially for owners of the vehicles most popular with car thieves. Observing the trend of the last ten years, from 2013 to 2023 the data turns out to be decidedly alarming, despite the almost total stoppage of activities in 2020: 1 million 550 thousand vehicles were used (cars, SUVs/crossovers, vans, heavy vehicles, motorcycles) stolen in Italy. Of these only 609 thousand were recovered (39% of the total), 939,500 disappeared into thin air. If we look at four wheels alone, from 2013 to today the subtractions amount to over 1 million 113 thousand, a few hundred thousand units less than the registrations of cars registered in 2023.
How vehicle thieves work
But what are the trends that are driving this growth? Without a doubt, the increasingly frequent use by thieves of hi-tech devices capable of facilitating and making the violation of latest generation cars and their theft quicker and less conspicuous has an impact. LoJack estimates that today over 1 in 3 thefts of vehicles equipped with contactless opening systems (with opening and closing of the passenger compartment without inserting the key) are also completed thanks to the use of technological devices, which can often be purchased online for a few EUR. The growing attention towards sport utility vehicles is the second driving factor in recent years. Today, over 1 in 5 vehicle thefts concern SUVs/crossovers, an increasingly attractive category for this business both thanks to the growing diffusion on the national market (and the consequent large demand for spare parts), and thanks to the appeal that this category registers on foreign markets in which the vehicles taken in our country are “placed”.
Vehicle thefts, the most affected regions: the ranking
The negative record of Campania remains unattainable with 26,045 thefts (+9% compared to 2022), followed at a distance by Lazio, with 16,912 episodes (also up last year, by 12%), Puglia (14,978), Sicily ( 13,174) and Lombardy (9,750 and +15% vs 2022). Campania and Lazio are also the regions in which the recovery percentages remain lowest, at 36% and 35% respectively. In these areas, the hopes of regaining possession of one’s stolen car are slim: in almost 2 out of 3 cases the stolen car disappears into thin air after the theft. In the heart of Puglia, however, the challenge of finding stolen cars takes on a particular nuance. Here, the already low recovery rates often translate into finds that leave a bitter trace: recovered vehicles are often reduced to wrecks, dismantled in less than 24 hours for the sale of spare parts. However, there are different regions in which car owners can sleep peacefully. In fact, there remain eight Regions in which the abductions do not reach 600 cases per year: Basilicata, Valle D’Aosta, Liguria, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Marche, Molise, Trentino-Alto Adige and Umbria. The motorcycle and scooter theft business also continues the growth recorded in recent years, although with a lower rate of increase (+2%) than that recorded by other vehicle categories. Last year, 31,856 motorized two-wheelers were stolen. Of these, just over 13 thousand (42%) were returned to their legitimate owners, the remaining part (28 thousand units) disappeared into thin air, to be resold mainly in Eastern European countries or to fuel the black market of parts used spare parts. By delving into the distribution of the thefts, some peculiarities of this criminal business emerge. If, in fact, the primacy of Campania and Lazio is confirmed, with 6,272 and 5,842 subtractions respectively, in third place, on the lowest step of the podium is Sicily (5,298), followed by Lombardy (4,613), Tuscany (2,061) and Apulia (1,541). The most significant increases in thefts were recorded last year in Lazio (+12%) and Lombardy (+11%), while the 10% drop in Campania did not compromise its leadership.
The most stolen cars in Italy: models and ranking
In recent years, a further plague, that of partial thefts of specific components (satellite navigators, tyres, mufflers/catalysts, clutch actuators, LED headlights, electric batteries, etc.), fueled by the production crisis in the automotive market and by the commercial constraints from the conflicts that have recently developed in Ukraine and in the Suez Canal which have made them even more expensive and sought after. Once stolen, the parts are then routed onto the national spare parts black market or crammed into containers and loaded onto ships departing from the ports of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The ranking of the most stolen car models holds few surprises compared to last year, with those of the Stellantis Group holding the top positions.
In the head Fiat Panda with 12,571 thefts (1 stolen vehicle in 10 is a Panda), followed by the Fiat 500 (5,889), the Fiat Punto (4.604), from Lancia Ypsilon (4,472), by the Fiat 500 L (2,637) and by Alfa Romeo Juliet (2,075). The last four positions are occupied by Smart Fortwo (1,976), Citroen C3 (1,741), Volkswagen Golf (1,465) and Renault Clio (1,365). Over half of car thefts, 54%, involve these models. A curiosity: in this particular ranking the three cars that are most difficult to find are, in order, Golf (it is recovered only in 35% of cases), C3 (36%) and Fortwo (37%). In the SUV/crossover category, the most coveted are the Fiat 500X (1,997 units stolen in 2023, 10% of the total SUV), followed by the Jeep Renegade (1,653), the Peugeot 3008 (778), the Jeep Compass (713) and the Renault Captur (663). The increase in thefts of motor vehicles (cars + vans + SUVs/crossovers) affected all areas of the country fairly uniformly, but, looking at the geographical distribution of the phenomenon, the total polarization on the usual five red-sticker regions is confirmed: in order Campania, Lazio, Puglia, Sicily and Lombardy. Here, 80,559 of the 99,153 total national thefts are recorded: 8 out of 10 thefts are actually concentrated in these areas. The data is not surprising, given the trends of past years and confirms once again how criminal organizations prefer to operate within large metropolises or in some contexts of Southern Italy in which they have traditionally rooted their activities.
The most stolen scooters in Italy: the ranking
The top 5 of the most stolen scooter models sees the undisputed record of the Honda SH (7,226 units stolen in 2023, almost 1 stolen motorbike/scooter in 4 is SH), followed by the Piaggio Liberty (2,332, growing rapidly), the Piaggio Vespa (1,878), from the Aprilia Scarabeo (1,840) and from the Agility Kymco which enters the top five with 1,382 subtractions. SH and Vespa, with 38% and 34% respectively, are the most difficult vehicles to find. The LoJack 2024 Dossier is enriched with a European overview of the theft business, reporting some data and assessments taken from the ‘Organized vehicle crime in Europe’ report of the Vehicle Crime Barometer which analyzes the theft phenomenon in six European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Bulgaria, Holland and Belgium) from 2000 to 2021 and from data collected by Eurostat (year 2021). From the intersection between continental and national data, our country’s unenviable leadership in the ranking of nations with the highest number of vehicle thefts emerges, with over 110 thousand vehicles stolen in 2021, preceded by France alone with 122,000 episodes. The Belpaese is then followed, at a sidereal distance, by Germany with 39 thousand thefts and by Turkey (33,000), Holland (22,000) and Spain (20,000). In most EU countries the number of thefts does not reach 1,000 units.
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