The Hyundai Elantra was America’s most-stolen car last year, with 21,732 taken

The Hyundai Elantra was the most-stolen vehicle in the United States in 2025, with 21,732 taken, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. That count covers last year’s full calendar year and sits inside a national total of 659,880 thefts, a figure 23% lower than in 2024 and equal to one vehicle stolen every 48 seconds. The car at the top of the list led a shrinking pool.

Behind the Elantra in the NICB ranking came the Honda Accord at 17,797 and the Hyundai Sonata at 17,687, followed by the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 at 16,764, the Honda Civic at 12,725, the Kia Optima at 11,521, the Ford F150 at 10,102, the Toyota Camry at 9,833, the Honda CR-V at 9,809 and the Nissan Altima at 8,445. Three of the ten are Hyundai or Kia models, and the Elantra’s lead over second place is 3,935 vehicles.

The NICB’s 2025 count and the 23% decline

The NICB published the data in a March 18, 2026 release describing 2025 as the lowest level of vehicle theft in several decades. President and CEO David J. Glawe credited cooperation: “Coordinated prevention efforts by law enforcement, auto manufacturers, insurance companies, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau are having a major impact on vehicle thefts nationwide.”

The list is ordered by the number of vehicles stolen, not by a theft rate per vehicle on the road. A model sold in very large numbers can rank high on volume alone, while a rarer model with a worse rate can sit lower, so the ranking measures where thieves took the most cars rather than which car is individually the riskiest. Even so, the spread is wide: the Elantra’s 21,732 is about two and a half times the 8,445 recorded for the tenth-placed Nissan Altima. The top three are all sedans, and the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 at fourth is the first pickup truck on the table, followed later by the Ford F150 at seventh.

Missing immobilizers behind the Hyundai and Kia pattern

The Elantra’s place on the list traces to a hardware gap that insurance researchers documented years earlier. The Highway Loss Data Institute, the research arm of the insurance industry’s safety institute, reported in a December 2022 bulletin that passive immobilizers were standard on just 26 percent of Hyundai and Kia vehicle series among 2015 models, against 96 percent of series for all other manufacturers combined. Theft claim frequencies for 2015 to 2019 Hyundai and Kia models in the first half of 2022 were more than three times higher than in the first half of 2019.

The same bulletin tested the cause directly. The Kia Seltos 4WD and Hyundai Tucson 4WD without immobilizers showed theft claim frequencies over six times higher than the matching models that carried standard immobilizers, which isolated the missing part from the badge on the hood.

State officials saw the effect in local figures. A letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration dated April 20, 2023 and signed by state attorneys general cited a 836% rise in Minneapolis vehicle thefts in 2022 and 611% in St. Paul, and noted the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finding that immobilizers were standard on all Hyundai vehicles built after November 1, 2021 and on all 2022 Kia models. Los Angeles, the letter said, saw an 85% increase in 2022.

The federal rulebook in force at the time set a low bar. The letter quotes the safety standard on theft protection, FMVSS 114, as requiring a starting system that, whenever the key is removed, prevents normal activation of the engine or motor and prevents either steering or forward self-mobility. A mechanical lock satisfies that wording, which left room for models sold without the electronic immobilizer that insurers later found made the difference.

The software update and the falling share

Hyundai’s response began in February 2023, when the company announced a free anti-theft software upgrade, beginning with more than 1 million Elantras, Sonatas and Venues. The dealer instructions for the work are filed with the federal safety agency as Campaign 993, covering anti-theft immobilizer software and a window decal. The letter to NHTSA lists Elantras from model years 2017 to 2020 among the first vehicles eligible.

The NICB data shows the share falling in step. Hyundai and Kia vehicles made up 21% of all thefts in 2023, 16% in 2024 and 14% in 2025, a third consecutive annual decline that the bureau attributes to software updates and theft-prevention measures by the manufacturers.

The pattern across the ten entries is plain enough: sedans from high-volume lines dominate, and the two brands that lacked immobilizers on earlier model years account for three places.

A 14% share is still large for two brands. At 21,732 thefts, the Elantra’s 2025 total remained 3,935 above the Honda Accord, the nearest competitor in the NICB table.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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