When Tesla finally rolled onto Indian streets in mid July 2025, with online bookings for the Model Y opening at ₹22,220 and the first showroom inaugurated in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex, it marked more than just the arrival of a luxury EV brand; it heralded a transformation of India’s motoring, logistics and digital ecosystems all at once.
As Tesla started delivering the first batch of its cars in India importing its SUVs from Shanghai and Germany, India faces a steep cyber security learning curve. Here’s an unvarnished look at the primary cyber-attack vectors which can potentially exploit India’s rapidly electrifying transportation landscape and urgent actions that must be taken to ensure that Indian roads remain resilient, secure, and prepared for the digital threats.
2. Charging infrastructure and smart grid vulnerabilities: As Tesla expands its Supercharger network in India, integration with the national grid will be both an opportunity and a challenge. The next generation of smart charging stations will coordinate with utilities on load management, dynamic tariffs, and even vehicle-to-grid (V2G) energy transfers. Yet this intelligence comes with heightened exposure. The system’s connectivity extends across SCADA controls, payment terminals, and cloud-based billing platforms. A single cyber-attack through a tainted firmware update or compromised server could cripple charging infrastructure across multiple cities or inject malicious commands into transformers, potentially leading to large-scale power disruptions. India’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme is driving rapid localization across the EV supply chain—but it’s also expanding the sector’s cyber risk surface. As domestic manufacturers ramp up production of EV charging components like PLCs, power modules, and inverters, many rely on imported microcontrollers or wireless chips sourced at low cost with limited security vetting. Without hardware-level safeguards such as Trusted Execution Environments, these components could become large-scale cyber vulnerabilities. Even innocuous elements such as communication modules or cable-control boards may carry preloaded malicious firmware. The risk extends to billing and payment systems as well. Breaches in energy management apps or transaction platforms could enable identity theft, pricing fraud, or remote shutdowns of charging infrastructure. With DISCOMs, OEMs, and charger operators expanding through public–private partnerships, India’s evolving EV ecosystem is becoming a complex, interconnected and increasingly attractive cyber target.
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3. Data privacy, telematics and user profiling: Beyond physical control, Tesla collects massive quantities of data—location traces, driver habits, biometric unlock patterns, in-cabin video feeds, and detailed logs of every brake, turn, and acceleration. This telemetry paints a near-complete behavioral fingerprint of the user. In the absence of a robust data protection regime, this rich data trove could be exploited by cybercriminals for stalking, blackmail, or hyper-targeted advertising. Corporate espionage becomes alarmingly feasible when competitor movements or executive travel patterns can be inferred from EV telemetry. For example, the repeated presence of a vehicle at the R&D wing of a major automotive rival could tip off investors or hackers to confidential activity. Worse, in politically sensitive cases, nation-state actors could compel Indian charging infrastructure providers, mobile networks, or data centres to hand over user metadata, effectively tracking high-value individuals by their comings and goings, mapping private routines, and even predicting future movements. A judge’s travel route, a journalist’s meetings, or a whistle-blower’s hideout could be silently compromised. In such a vacuum, the car ceases to be a private mobility device and instead becomes a rolling surveillance terminal—one that watches, listens, and remembers.
4. Regulatory and road network challenges: Indian roads are famously chaotic -- mixed traffic, informal roadside vendors, variable lane discipline, and inconsistent signage. Add to that an autonomous vehicle platform relying on HD maps, LIDAR/vision fusion, and V2X (vehicle-to-everything) beacons and you introduce new cyber risks with every municipal tech upgrade. For instance, imagine a hacked smart traffic light system in Delhi’s Connaught Place that feeds false green signals to incoming vehicles while blocking cross traffic, leading to intersection gridlock or collisions involving semi-autonomous vehicles relying on machine-verified traffic data. Or consider a spoofed V2X beacon in Bengaluru falsely broadcasting school zone alerts, causing abrupt deceleration in fast-moving traffic and triggering rear-end crashes. Without a clear regulatory framework mandating secure development lifecycles, vulnerability disclosure protocols, and certified security audits, each digital enhancement—whether it's an AI-driven traffic camera, an adaptive speed-limit sign, or a roadside sensor node—becomes a potential Trojan horse. These can be exploited not only to confuse individual vehicles but also to disrupt traffic flows across entire city sectors, weaponizing infrastructure against the very mobility it was designed to improve.
Mandate a national EV cybersecurity standard: India must implement a national EV cybersecurity standard covering vehicle networks, OTA updates, and smart chargers. Automakers should isolate critical ECUs like braking and steering on dedicated CAN or CAN FD bus segments, with firewalls separating them from infotainment systems. OTA updates must use strong code signing (e.g., ECDSA) and mutual TLS, with tamper-evident binaries and rollback capability. For smart chargers, enforce ISO 15118 “Plug & Charge” with embedded secure elements and EMI/EMC compliance. On the grid side, chargers should include a “load-shedding handshake” to let utilities manage peak demand and avoid brownouts. While this raises pressure on supply chains, requiring secure microcontrollers and vetted firmware, it creates incentives for local semiconductor manufacturing under the PLI scheme.
Establish a joint cyber incident response cell: India should set up a 24x7 Security Operations Centre (SOC) jointly staffed by CERT-In, Tesla India’s security team, REN-ISAC, and DISCOM representatives. This cell would coordinate real-time threat monitoring using dashboards that aggregate IDS/IPS alerts from substations, EV chargers, and connected vehicles. A predefined escalation protocol featuring simulated “fire drills” would ensure that malware outbreaks, even on a small number of home chargers, trigger rapid emergency load-shedding commands and public warnings. The grid impact would be significant - shared anomaly indicators would allow DISCOMs to quickly “island” compromised feeders, preventing cascading blackouts. Additionally, by contributing to a shared threat intelligence pool, utilities would pressure their IT/OT vendors to adopt hardened SCADA systems, strengthening the overall resilience and security of India’s evolving grid infrastructure.
Enforce secure supply chain audits: India must mandate secure supply chain audits for all EV ecosystem vendors, including Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers. Critical components like PCBAs, battery management systems, and telematics units should undergo third-party penetration testing, with signed Supply Chain Level of Assurance (SLCA) certifications per ISO/SAE 21434. To prevent counterfeit or compromised hardware, key parts such as microcontrollers, power MOSFETs, and high-voltage contactors should use blockchain-backed traceability. This approach will raise quality across the board, transformer and switchgear vendors will face similar scrutiny, reducing substation failures and ensuring steadier EV charging. Long term, PLI-backed local fabs will scale semiconductor and PCB production, easing import dependency and lowering hardware costs.
Strengthen data protection legislation: India must urgently pass comprehensive data protection laws tailored to the EV ecosystem. Legislation should require drivers to give granular, journey-specific consent for any data sharing beyond safety-critical telemetry. By default, only anonymized, aggregate load curves should be shared with utilities. All raw location data and biometric unlock hashes must be stored within Indian borders and automatically deleted after 30 days unless the user opts to retain them longer. For the grid, clear data-use rules will allow DISCOMs to integrate anonymized EV charging profiles into demand-side management (DSM) algorithms, smoothing peak loads while respecting privacy. On the supply side, cloud providers, analytics firms, and AMI meter vendors will be required to establish India-based data centres, increasing capital investment and creating skilled jobs in Tier II and III cities.
Invest in cyber awareness and training: Building cyber resilience in India’s EV ecosystem requires widespread awareness and targeted skill development. Red team/blue team exercises should simulate real-world attacks on EV charging microgrids, including phishing attempts on substation staff and controlled detonation of ICS malware. In parallel, the National Institute of Solar Energy should offer an “EV Grid Cybersecurity Specialist” certification program, open to engineers from utilities like BSES, Tata Power, and Tesla service centres. This investment will create a skilled workforce capable of securing SCADA, network management systems, and charger platforms. Over time, vendors will face greater accountability, certified professionals will act as embedded auditors, and any supplier unable to explain protocols like IEC 62443 or IEEE 2030.5 risks losing their contracts. This shift will drive both innovation and discipline across the EV supply chain.
Ranjan Pal (MIT Sloan School of Management, USA)Bodhibrata Nag (Indian Institute of Management Calcutta)Saral Mukherjee (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad)
First Published: Oct 17, 2025, 18:41
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